Such a visitor comes to Prague’s periphery by bus and travels to the city centre in the metro. Before visiting an exhibition, a museum or another sight they get attracted by smell of fresh bakery and then continue over the Charles’ Bridge to the Malá Strana (Lesser Town) where they have their lunch and choose a gift or buy what they like. Then they take a taxi to the Sea World at the Holešovice Fairground in Prague and buy some candies in a stall at the Matějská pouť. On the way back they buy a pair of shoes in a stall at Pankrác.
The inspectors behaved similarly during another extraordinary control action that was held a week ago and that concerned especially information obligations and fairness of sale. Objects to control were specialized bakery workplaces, sale stalls with souvenirs, textile, flowers, pet supplies the same as jewellery shops, grocery shops and restaurants at Malá Strana (Lesser Town), taxi cabs at touristic locations, stalls at Matějská pouť and also stalls offering textile and shoes at Pankrác.
The inspection action was realized on Friday and Saturday March 25 and 26, 2011. These days could easily be named as “black” by many Prague’s tourists. Often they paid without knowing for what they pay; as a souvenir they brought a fake and new shoes were as bad as the old ones.
Malá Strana (Lesser Town), Prague 1:
Overall 19 workplaces were controlled with the assortment of souvenirs, textile, flowers, pet supplies, jewellery, groceries and also restaurants. Infringements of any obligations defined by laws in the surveillance competence of the CTI were found in 15 cases by the inspectors. Most frequently these infringements concerned not providing information about prices of products sold. In 3 workplaces, fakes of 4 kinds of products were found; the estimated price of the originals would be over CZK 78,000. Administrative proceedings were launched with 12 of the controlled subjects; three were fined at the spot in the total amount of CZK 5,000; one finding will be transferred to a trade licensing office.
Bakery shops:
4 workplaces were checked and officers detected infringements in 3 of them. In 2 cases, information about prices of products sold were not provided; in one case the declared weight of products sold was not provided. Administrative proceedings with the operator will be launched.
Taxi cabs:
Control of taxi services at Prague’s frequented locations was realized in cooperation with the Prague Metropolitan Police and its taxi group. 3 providers of taxi services were checked. In 1 case, the police officers found breach of obligations which was transferred to the Magistrate’s department for transport, but the taxi providers do not have to be afraid of any sanctions from the CTI this time as its controls were without defects.
Matějská pouť:
This time in the area of the the Holešovice Fairground in Prague, inspectors focused on fairness of sale in 16 stalls offering candies, toys and refreshment. In 7 cases they found failures to obligations: in 4 cases they detected deficiencies in provision of information about prices of products; in 2 cases, no bill of product purchase with defined belongings was given out on consumer’s demand and in one case, declared weight was not provided. Five checked subjects were imposed a fine at the spot in the total amount of CZK 7,000; administrative proceedings will be launched with the other two subjects.
Pankrác Marketplace:
Also the control of sale at the Pankrác marketplace, where 8 stalls selling textile and foot wear assortment were checked, did not show any good results. In 7 cases, obligation to inform about prices of products was breached (section 12, par. 1 of the Act No 634/1992 Coll.). Overall in 2 cases, fine was imposed at the spot in the total amount of CZK 2,000; in 5 cases administrative proceedings will be launched and 1 transferred finding will be resolved by appropriate trade licensing office.