Romanian PM urges regulators to tackle ‘shrinkflation’ phenomenon

With some retailers offering less while keeping prices the same, a phenomenon now widely referred to as “shrinkflation”, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has called on lawmakers to adopt measures to combat the trend, drawing inspiration from the French model.

The prime minister’s announcement came after he received several complaints about retailers reducing their weight while leaving the price unchanged.

”I consider this practice to be a form of consumer fraud. Essentially, it represents an economically unjustified price hike disguised within similar packaging,” Ciolacu said at a government meeting on Thursday.

To tackle the problem, he added that Romania will set up a group tasked with drawing up a best practice guide to combat the phenomenon.

Ciolacu also urged regulators to address the issue urgently to prevent such occurrences and develop “a regulation modelled on the French approach.”

He added that the rules would force manufacturers to indicate on the packaging if the price of the product remains the same despite a reduction in weight, and retailers who fail to comply would face severe sanctions.

Sorin Mierlea, president of a consumer association, commented on the announced measures, suggesting that in addition to the need for weight information to be displayed in larger font sizes, as “the current rules lack clarity in this respect”, products of different weights should not be displayed together on shelves to avoid potentially misleading pricing practices.

In France, the rules provide fines of up to €3,000 for individuals and €15,000 for legal entities.

(Roberta Măicăneanu | Euractiv.ro)

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