REUTERS
Officials checked over 2,500 business entities operating in the field of trade, restaurant business and services, having revealed violations in 40.4% of cases.
Head of the State Food Safety and Consumer Protection Service Volodymyr Lapa says the agency in the first half of 2018 (H1) fined 384 enterprises out of 2,500 verified to the tune of UAH 1.38 million (US$51,782) for violating the law on consumer protection.
"Some 384 business entities have been held accountable under Article 23 of the Law of Ukraine 'On Protection of Consumer Rights' with imposing administrative and economic sanctions worth UAH 1.38 million, of which UAH 485,510 was paid voluntarily. A total of 921 orders have been issued to stop violations of consumer rights," the agency's press service quoted Lapa as saying.
In addition, 713 individuals were brought to administrative responsibility as a result of inspections and fined UAH 106,470 (UAH 92,520 was paid on a voluntary basis).
According to Lapa, over the period under review, the agency checked over 2,500 business entities operating in the field of trade, restaurant business and services, having revealed violations in 40.4% of cases.
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During the inspections, the Service registered more than 2,500 types of violations. The most common of them (82.6% of cases) was the lack of necessary, accessible, reliable and timely information about products or sellers. Another violation was the sale of goods with expired shelf life (10.2%).
There were also reported sales of dangerous goods without proper labeling and information on the rules and conditions for their safe use (1.6%), non-fulfillment or untimely fulfillment of the order to eliminate violations of consumer rights (1.5%), violation of contract terms on performance of work and services (0.9%), etc.
According to Lapa, the Service in H1 checked the safety of goods and services worth over UAH 13.2 million, as well as prevented the purchase and use by citizens of poor-quality food, non-food products, and services worth more than UAH 4.02 million (30.3%).
A total of 149 materials with results of inspections were forwarded to the bodies of pre-trial investigation, state supervision and control, and local self-government bodies.
Over the period under review, more than 10,000 proposals, appeals, complaints and applications from consumers were submitted to the State Service's local offices, including 2,400 submitted personally.
Based on the results of consideration of citizens' appeals, their requirements were met in more than 40% of cases. Some UAH 2.93 million was returned to consumers in H1 2018 for low-quality goods and services against UAH 6 million in 2017.