The Action for Social Justice (ASP) today submitted an initiative to the Government of Montenegro for consumer protection through the drafting of a special law on price control measures on the domestic market, modeled on the law in Croatia, a member state of the European Union, which was passed this month.
The NGO said that the adoption of the aforementioned law by the Croatian Parliament followed protests by consumers, who had been boycotting certain retail chains for weeks due to high product prices.
"As the Government of Montenegro occasionally takes actions to prevent higher prices for around 70 consumer products, the ASP indicates that this is a very small number of products, which generally does not protect consumers too much from high prices, and these Government actions have not had a significant effect in terms of preserving standards and protecting citizens," the statement said.
ASP emphasized that individual retail chains and seven domestic suppliers, which are among the largest, had accumulated profits of around 2023 million euros at the end of 190, which they consider a clear sign that the retail and supplier sector is not under business threat.
"At the same time, the Competition Protection Agency has not yet presented to the public a single relevant analysis or research on the causes of the huge price increase, meaning there is a strong indication that they are not doing their job in a quality manner.
"ASP points out that citizens are obliged to pay market prices, not monopoly, cartel or any other prices, and it is in the interest of citizens that the Government of Montenegro urgently consider adopting a special law on price control measures, like the Croatian law," the NGO added.
They believe that consumers are also exposed to huge drug prices, which has been a long-standing problem, and which are significantly more expensive than in the surrounding area and where there is an open monopoly on the domestic market, while a special problem is the huge amounts of interest on loans and other banking services.
"In addition to the Government of Montenegro, the parliamentary groups in the Parliament of Montenegro, whether the government or the opposition, should be significantly more involved in these problems, and in this regard, they also have the mechanism of their own legislative initiative at their disposal, all for the sake of protecting citizens," the statement concludes.
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