Consumer Protection Commissioners have proposed the temporary suspension of the altex.ro website for unfair commercial practices in the context of Black Friday, saying they will inform the competent criminal authorities.
Thus, The National Consumer Protection Authority (ANPC )states that on November 9, 2021, by accessing the website www.altex.ro, the commissioners found that the economic operator was promoting products as being at a discount price, without applying the discounts from the reference price (the lowest price practiced in the same sales space during the last 30 days, before the date of application of the discounted price). The ANPC inspection teams detected more than 1,000 products with price deviations displayed on the website.
The institution states that “Altex representatives have stated, during discussions on this issue, that they cannot be fair in a market where no one is”.
According to the National Authority for Consumer Protection, as a result of the irregularities found, the economic operator was fined 50,000 lei. ANPC proposed, as a complementary measure, the suspension of the activity until the unfair commercial practice ceases.
ANPC also informed that it will inform the relevant authorities, namely the National Audiovisual Council and the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics – ICI, about the infringements noted on Black Friday at Altex, in order to prevent the further promotion of this type of non-compliant “price discount”.
The ANPC also states that it will inform the competent criminal authorities in Romania of the cases of fraud detected as a result of these checks.