The Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission say 27 traders were found to be in breach of the FCCC Act 2010 during inspections of Diwali specific products and trader compliance during the Diwali season.
CEO, Joel Abraham says their monitoring team is currently undertaking inspections of Diwali specific products to check for possible violations such as lapsed expiry dates, price displays not matching at the checkout counter and consumers not being fully informed about products.
The FCCC has conducted 189 inspections so far.
19 infringement notices were issued with five verbal warnings and 3 traders warned with prosecution.
Abraham has called on businesses to conform to ethical business practices.
He says their team will be travelling Fiji wide to do surprise checks on traders.
Abraham says they have been working with Ministry of Health, Weights & Measures and Municipal Councils to ensure that the relevant laws are followed especially because quality of goods has implications on consumer health.
He says the busy Diwali season is unfortunately a time when unscrupulous traders and service providers often take advantage of consumers.
Abraham says that while a few unscrupulous traders engage in such unethical acts, majority of businesses are complying.
