Citizens are being deceived by merchants

Price discounts at various percentages appear in advertising at nearly most stores, depending on what products they sell, but that does not prove to be real in most cases, according to some citizens.

Adem Sylejmani a citizen from Pristina says these ads are made only for the benefit of businessmen, and not because there are reductions of products.

These are not real, they themselves know how to fix them, and they're cheating us, he says.

Susan is similarly expressed.

The “Poss in stores are written or reported to have discounts of up to 50 or 70 percent, but not every time is true especially in food stores”, she says.

Hamdi, another citizen, feels that such ads are made by shops to sell their products.

The ads they're doing in the store or even the flyers they're distributing are lies. Citizens who watch these ads go to those brands and buy something, and businesses get”.

Otherwise, according to the Kosovo Consumer Protection Law, it is considered deceptive and punished if a company makes an ad containing incorrect information, and is therefore able to deceive the common consumer.

However, such a law, according to representatives of the Nongovernmental Consumer Organisation, Ceatin Kacanik is not respected and citizens continue to be deceived by businessmen.

If the TV is active right now, there will be fraudulent sales ads online. The offer is said to be limited until the ad is given some 100 times. About 90 percent of advertising given, whether by electronic or written media, is deceptive. They, in a way, cheat on outright and unneedably or unfair consumer citizen”, says Kachanik.

Meanwhile, business representatives say business advertising is more designed to encourage citizens to visit their stores rather than cheat.

Kosovo Business Alliance Chairman Agim Sahin says business marketing is done to inform citizens and that there is no marketing fraud.

“Starting in terms of businesses and their perceptions in any form have been false marketing, but that has marketing and marketing, they participate little stock-shaped products compared to advertising, which in marketing things are lawful and this often stimulates consumer interest in going to buy different things”, he says.

However, Sahin adds to citizens when they feel that they are deceived by merchants, in such cases they have the right to complain.

I invite consumers to protect their right and to complain according to the law, while businesses invite them to do the most marketing right that they only manage to increase their sale and productivity”, Sahin adds.

Fines for those companies who are identified as making fraudulent ads, according to the Consumer Protection Law, are from one thousand euros to three thousand euros. /rel/