Skopje, 25 February 2025 (MIA) — All retailers except microenterprises and individual vendors should publish their product prices on their websites for the convenience of consumers, and retail chains should list prices for each of their stores separately, under the new draft amendments to the Law on Consumer Protection reviewed Tuesday at a session of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs, Labor and Energy Policy.

According to committee chair Bojan Stojanovski who introduced the bill, the new legal provision should promote fair competition and consumer protection.

"As a ruling majority, we will intervene to protect citizens following the examples of countries such as Israel, France and, recently, Croatia," Stojanovski said.

He said retail stores would need to create websites and update them daily with current prices of their merchandise, with the State Market Inspectorate issuing fines for those who do not comply.

Retailers should also pay special attention to displaying unit prices as well as retail prices on their price labels.

"We want to increase transparency and competitiveness as well as help citizens decide where to spend their money," he said.

According to Stojanovski, the bill will make it possible for consumers to easily compare prices and will discourage unfair competition, especially in the grocery industry.

In line with the provision, applications and websites could be created to allow consumers to compare prices between different retailers, he said.

The bill is based on France's consumer protection and fair competition regulation as well as EU's Consumer Protection Law and its e-commerce rules.

Additionally, the bill is in accordance with Directive 98/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of Feb. 16, 1998, on consumer protection in the indication of the prices of products offered to consumers.

The bill also updates the Law on Consumer Protection regarding the authority of state market inspectors and the fines for retailers breaking the law.

The committee also reviewed draft amendments to the Law on Mineral Resources, which are related to distributing the concession fee between municipalities in cases of tailings being processed or disposed of in a different municipality than the one the minerals were mined at.

Both bills were submitted by a group of MPs from VMRO-DPMNE. The laws are being fast-tracked, so lawmakers will be discussing them in Parliament later today. mr/