Category: Press Releases

(Prague, March 29, 2013) The amendment of the Act on Consumer Credit has brought its first results after the first month. All inspectorates of the Czech Trade Inspection Authority have monitored offers and intermediations of credits since the amendment came into force and have reported that the most frequent problems have disappeared despite there still are some exceptions. Consumers asking for credit are advised not to call any telephone numbers charged with high tariffs. The Czech Trade Inspection Authority has welcomed the stronger consumer ...

Results of a pilot control action(Prague, March 26, 2013) Results of the pilot control action at several selected used cars dealers in various regions have confirmed that such sellers deceit consumers. The inspections were carried out on the grounds of consumers’ most frequent complaints submitted to the Czech Trade Inspection Authority and related to the practices of used cars sellers in 2012. Within the total number of 6 inspections, the officers detected serious breaches in three cases. In one case, incomplete information about the car’s con...

(Monitoring of fuel quality – February 2013) (Prague, March 19, 2013) In February, sampling of fuels continued not only in accordance with the schedule of inspections, but it was also carried out at filling stations where consumers had the suspicion that the fuel failed the appropriate quality standards. Totally 210 fuel samples were checked in February 2013. Five samples, including 2 motor petrol BA 95 samples and 3 diesel samples, failed the quality requirements.

(Final report of 2012)(Prague, March 14, 2013) Tour operators and travel agencies offer their trips long before the summer starts. Is it possible to choose a reliable tour operator or travel agency after the experience of hundreds of clients whose tour operators went bankrupt during the summer touristic season? And how did the tour operators treat their clients last year and how did their conduct towards consumers comply with their own contract terms and conditions? The officers of the Czech Trade Inspection Authority were checking it throughou...

(Final report of 2012) (Prague, March 7, 2013) There are still a lot of fakes of various products in the retail market despite the surveillance authorities carry out permanent repressions. The fakes range from audio and video discs, forgeries of globally both known and unknown trademarks to counterfeits of legally protected industrial patterns. Consumers don’t sufficiently realize that a thievery of intellectual property is the same as any other thievery and that by purchasing fakes they become accomplices of the fakers. These customers can’t ...

(Final Report of 2012)(Prague, February 27, 2013) Have you prepared metal waste to sell in a procurement centre of secondary raw materials? Then you should pay attention to the following report which summarizes the results of the inspections of the Czech Trade Inspection Authority at operators of procurement centres. The inspections have proven that almost one third of the checked subjects breached the legal regulations. The procurement centres are not equipped with tested (ověřený) measuring tools (scales) and thus the procured materials are w...

(Final report of the 2012 project)(Prague, February 28, 2013) Inspections of solid fuel burning appliances intended for heating living spaces were focused especially on the obligatory CE marking as well as on completeness and accuracy of the accompanying documentation directly at distributors, manufacturers or importers. It was also checked whether the products are accompanied with the consumer information necessary to safely operate these products. Totally 48 distributors were checked, including 10 in which breaches of legal regulations were f...

(Final report of 2012)(Prague, February, 2013) More and more consumers spend increasingly more money in e-shops when using the internet to buy various goods and to order services. Vendors have taken the chance and traditional shops have also opened their e-shops providing attractive offers. However, not all of them operate the e-shops in compliance with the legal regulations. They use the anonymity of the virtual environment to offer goods that are not available at the moment of the order or to deliver used or incomplete products instead of new...

(Monitoring of fuel quality in January 2013)(Prague, February 19, 2013) Inspections of fuel quality have continued in 2013 by sampling fuels offered at filling stations on the whole territory of the Czech Republic. Until the end of the year, at least 2,650 samples of motor fuel will be taken, including 1,000 motor petrol samples, 1,200 motor oil samples, 150 LPG samples, 50 mixed fuel samples and 250 samples of other fuel types. Further improvement of operational discipline of the whole distributional chain from producers to sellers of fuels an...

(Final report of 2012) (Prague, February 13, 2013) In 2012, the Czech Trade Inspection Authority participated in the international PROSAFE project focused on lighters safety. The inspectors also cooperated with the customs authorities when supervising the Czech market. Random controls of shops with the assortment of lighters, including e-shops, were carried out in all regions of the Czech Republic. The inspectors imposed bans on sale of 4,312 pieces of lighters amounting to 91,711 CZK, including several types of the so called “novelty” lighters...