Tirana to have its own Consumer Protection Agency

TIRANA, August 3 – The Tirana Municipality announced on Wednesday the start of works for the establishment of Consumer Protection Agency, one of electoral campaign promises of new Mayor Lulzim Basha.
Deputy Tirana Mayor Edmond Panariti that the agency will examine citizens’ complaints about prices of products and standards through direct communication on the phone or through the web and take immediate measures in case of identifying abuses in prices or quality.
He said the Agency “would be an example of synergy between local and central government serving citizens.”
The working group on the establishment of the Consumer Protection agency is composed of well-known experts of food, public health and market researchers and economists.
Last month, Parliament approved some changes to the consumer protection law which strengthens measures against abusive companies. The changes foresee that abusive businesses will be imposed fines of up to 2 percent of their annual turnover in cases of abusing consumers and will also be excluded from participating in public tenders. Meanwhile, penalties for each individual damage to consumers have increased by five times with fines up 500,000 lek.