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Labor inspectors issued 2,276 misdemeanor citations as part of the national campaign regarding gas stations, of which 1,766 warnings and 510 fines, worth 2.21 million RON, announced, on Thursday, Labor Minister Marius Budai on his Facebook page.
According to the quoted source, there were 2,453 control actions at gas stations employing 84,389 employees. There were 11 cases of illegal employment, and the activity of one economic operator was ceased, the Labor Minister also said.
Several institutions, among which the Competition Council, the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), National Consumer Protection Authority (ANPC) and the Labor Ministry, have conducted control activities at gas stations in the past week after, a few days ago, gas stations were assaulted by drivers scared that the price of gas will exceed 10 RON per liter, as information in the public sphere claimed. Photos appeared on social media with drivers buying gas in bags, demijohns, containers, and barrels.
At the time, Energy Minister Virgil Popescu urged Romanians to calm, saying that there are sufficient stocks and prices have no reason to increase.
Furthermore, the Competition Council mentioned that it is monitoring the gas market and investigating situations where prices have risen very much without economic justification. According to the Competition Council, the anticipation of a certain price that should be practiced by a company and announcing it on the market can fall under the incidence of provisions in the Competition Law. Companies must establish their price policies independently, depending on their own strategy and the structure of costs involved in running their activity, agreements, while concerted actions regarding to market behavior are punished by the legislation in the domain.
In these conditions, gas stations have received fines, up to now, from the Environment Guard, the National Consumer Protection Authority and the Labor Inspection. AGERPRES
