The consumer organization FACUA has denounced five supermarket and hypermarket chains for limiting consumers the number of units of sunflower oil that they can acquire in each purchase, a measure that many surfaces have taken in the face of the lack of supply derived from the war in Ukraine.
The establishments, explains the association in a statement, are DAY, Mercadona, MAS, El Jamón and Hiperdinowhich have been denounced before the competent authorities in the matter of commerce of different autonomous communities, among them those of the central social headquarters of the chains.
FACUA explains that this practice is illegalsince article 9.2 of Law 7/1996, of January 15, on the Regulation of Retail Trade, establishes that “merchants may not limit the number of items that can be purchased by each buyer or establish higher prices or suppress reductions or incentives for purchases that exceed a certain volume. In the event that, in an establishment open to the public, there are not enough stocks to cover the demand, the temporary priority in the request will be taken into account”.
The association has been able to verify that the five companies have placed messages in which they notify their clients of said limitation. “The sale of sunflower oil is limited to 3 units of a liter or a bottle of 5 liters per customer per day,” warn signs placed in DAY. “Maximum 5 L per customer”, say those of Mercadona. “We limit the sale of sunflower oil and seeds. Maximum 5 liters per customer per day,” they indicate in MAS, the Andalusian chain of the IFA group.
For her part, the also Andalusian The ham points out that “the purchase of this product is limited to 5 units of 1 liter per customer per day”, while in the Canary Islands hyperdyne It can be read that “the purchase per customer and day is limited to a maximum of 1 unit x 5 or 2 units x the rest of the formats”.
The association has also detected that in recent days there has been a disproportionate rise in the prices of this product in different chains. FACUA has registered amounts of up to 2.98 euros per liter in the establishment that sells the product at the highest price.
The legislation also includes the work of public administrations to verify “compliance with the provisions” in the legislation, for “whose purpose they may develop the precise inspection actions” and they will be able to “sanction the infractions committed”. The sanctioning competence, according to the norm, corresponds to the autonomous communities.
For this reason, FACUA urges the different autonomous protection authorities to carry out the investigations that are appropriate in their territorial scope and initiate the corresponding disciplinary proceedings.
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