Lidl supermarkets across the country have been fined more than 7 million lei by the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) commissioners for selling moldy fruit and vegetables, food with expired or damaged packaging, windows and shelves full of clutter and leftover food, but violation. also found regarding labeling or price inconsistencies on the shelf and at the checkout. In relation to 38 stores, a decision was made to temporarily stop operations until the shortcomings are eliminated.

The National Authority for Consumer Protection announced on Friday that since the beginning of the year, it has carried out – as part of the control topic that involves the supervision of how large retail chains operating in Romania comply with the legislation in this field – an inspection of 307 actions of supermarkets Lidl at the national level, News.ro reports.

Dozens of Lidl stores are temporarily closed

Following the violations detected, ANPC commissioners issued 481 fines for violations amounting to approximately 7.3 million lei and 133 warnings.

At the same time, they decided to permanently stop the sale of non-conforming products worth more than 125,000 lei, to temporarily stop providing services until the defects are eliminated in the case of 38 units located in the counties of: Arad, Prahova, Karash-Severin, Hunedoara, Neamts, Iasi, Constanta, Olt, Dolj , Brasov, Alba, Mures, Bihor, Satu Mare, Salai, Bistrica Neseud, Ilfov and the municipality of Bucharest.

The commissioners also proposed to stop the unfair commercial practice in the case of 66 units and decided to temporarily close for a period of up to 6 months for the store in the municipality of Bacău.

“I don’t know how this network works in other countries. We hoped that, at least in Romania, it would be an example for everyone else, but especially for us. I also don’t know if moldy vegetables and fruits are eaten in the country of origin of this business entity, or if the prices on the shelves do not correspond to domestic ones. It is also interesting whether after the arrival of the supervisory body and the application of sanctions, things are treated in the same superficial and disinterested way. We took pens to find out what we should do, but we had to write with them in the minutes of the sanctions,” said Horia Constantinescu, president of the ANPC.

Among the detected deviations from the legislation:

– sale of food products exceeding the minimum expiration date, storage of unpackaged bakery products, in boxes with dust and contamination, use of refrigerated display cases or boxes without temperature control charts, damaged or not disinfected, with excess ice, dust. . , marketing of some food products with worn, detached packaging, with mechanical shocks, marketing of some fruits/vegetables as premium when in fact they had mechanical shocks, mold and corner areas, no product prices on the shelf, non-compliance with the promotion regime (no reference product from the shelf, in the case of product marketing, in the multipack system, failure to specify the period of the promotion, etc.), inconsistency in the price of products on the shelf and at the cash register, the presence of improper storage conditions, poor cleanliness, lack of indication of allergenic factors on labels issued in stores , lack of indication of the country of origin of some products, non-compliance with the storage temperature specified by the manufacturer, sale of electrical products with incomplete warranty certificates, lack of declarations of conformity in the case of sales of some electrical household products or their non-translation into Romanian, lack of translation into Romanian on the labels of some products c, the lack of mention on the label of the expiration date of the product, the sale of some products with textile fibers that are an inhalation risk for children within the age limits indicated by the manufacturers.