Days before the February inflation jump (6.6% on average) was known, the secretary of commerce, led by Matías Tombolini, has adopted a more confrontational profile towards the industry of mass consumption. Indeed, on his Twitter account he created the hashtag “#PreciosJustos #SeAcabóLaPatiencia”, to disseminate the latest operations launched in supermarkets and suppliers to verify compliance with its flagship anti-inflation program. All to cushion the impact of rising prices, especially in the basic food basket.
In this sense, a balance sheet indicates that since Tombolini took office on 2 August 2022 in March, 3,274 fines and penalties totaling $2,300 million were enforced, or the equivalent of US$11.5 million at the official exchange rate. Of that amount, $1.3 billion fell on supermarkets. The remainder is split between fines from the Competition Defense ($836.5 million) and the Consumer Defense ($157 million).
In the list of sanctioned companies (as revealed by Tombolini himself), there are producers, supermarkets and wholesaler chains, including Nestlé, Cabrales, Mondelez, Carrefour, Cencosud (which controls the Jumbo, Disco and Vea chains), Changomás, Día , Maxiconsumo and Josimar, and more recently Coca-Cola, La Serenísima and Danone. Despite this, most of them are unaware of the reasons for the infringement and have not even been informed.
In fact, they are greatly affected by the fact that specific fines are mentioned, since it is a process that takes on average between 1.5 and 2 years (Tombolini management it takes 7 months and 14 days), between the beginning of the file, the defence, the presentation of the evidence and the possible sanction. A recognized mass consumer manufacturer clarion that he received a notification, but for an infringement in 2021, “when Paula Español was there”, the first secretary of commerce in the government of Alberto Fernández.
Another company mentioned said that he was penalized only once, but that the file was launched in 2016. “And it still didn’t have a definition,” he clarified. The publication of the list has aroused more amazement than concern. A source explained that he called Tombolini -alarmed- to ask him about the alleged fine and more the official did not respond.
Despite the “bad data” of inflation in February and the number of infractions, fines and closures, close to Tombolini ensure that “Fair prices work very well” and that it “has a high level of compliance”. The current scheme envisages a basket with 2,000 frozen basic products until June and a maximum monthly increase of 3.2%, the objective of which is to establish price references, for another 50,000 products. The recipe hasn’t worked so far. Last month, the sensitive food and beverage category increased by 9.8%, three times the official guideline.
The recipe has also widened the price gap between large supermarkets (due to fair prices and promotions) and local shops (shops, supermarkets, butchers and fairs). For this reason, Commerce targeted La Serenísima, Coca-Cola and Danone two weeks ago for the most expensive sales in neighborhoods (“blatant double-digit increases”) to make up for the lack of profitability of the agreements agreed on fair prices.
“These are old fines, from years ago”, interpreted a private source to relativize the latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce. In some companies they interpret that everything is part of an “overreaction” to hide the enormous concern generated by the inflationary acceleration of recent weeks.
Source: Clarin
