1 billion 331 million lira ‘exorbitant price’ fine in the first 9 months of 2024

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Lerato Khumalo

The Ministry of Commerce shared the figures regarding the fight against exorbitant price increases.

In the statement made by the Ministry, “Daily routine inspections are carried out in 81 provinces within the scope of the fight against exorbitant price increases. As a result of the inspections, the products that are determined to have exorbitant price increases are meticulously evaluated by the Unfair Price Evaluation Board, and prices ranging from 100,000 TL to 1,000,000 TL are evaluated based on various criteria. “Administrative fines are imposed in various amounts.”

The Ministry’s statement is as follows:

“In this context, 170,207 businesses were inspected by the domestic trade units of the Ministry of Commerce in 2023. Administrative fines of approximately 1.5 billion liras (1 billion 498 million TL) were imposed on 48,628 real and legal persons. The Competition Board also imposed a total of 2,000,000 TL on 166 companies it investigated in 2023. It imposed an administrative fine of 7 billion liras. As a result of the inspections carried out in the first 9 months of this year, the domestic trade units of the Ministry of Commerce inspected 340,485 businesses. Similarly, the Competition Board imposed an administrative fine of 1 billion 331 million liras on 153,063 businesses. In the last 9 months, it has imposed administrative fines of 4 billion 848 million liras on 147 companies.

On the other hand, inspections have recently become more frequent, especially in response to public complaints about pricing in markets. Upon detections of unfair price increases at these points where our people meet their most basic needs, our Ministry of Commerce intensifies its inspections and takes the necessary steps to prevent this situation.

The Ministry of Commerce carefully examines all price increases in basic consumer products in order to maintain the price balance in the market and prevent our citizens from being victimized. In this context, the inspection teams of the Provincial Directorates of Commerce have further increased their controls, especially in markets where the indispensable needs of the public are sold.

As the Ministry of Commerce, we continue our determination to fight to protect the rights of our citizens and well-intentioned businesses and to ensure a fair and transparent trade order in the market. It is announced to the public with respect.”