Month: April 2013

(Final report of 2012)(Prague, April 25, 2013) In 2012, The Czech Trade Inspection Authority checked 70 tanning studios and detected that the emitted UV radiation exceeded the legal limit in 13 sunbeds. “Although the real condition of sunbeds and solarium devices is significantly better than in the previous years, we will keep checking these devices in order to be able to protect consumers against the high hazards to their health stemming from excessive UV radiation,” said the Director General of the CTIA Vladimír Velčovský and added: “It is ne...

(Interim report of the first quarter of 2013)(Prague, April 18, 2013) “We have seen an increase in the use of unfair commercial practices at presentation events after we evaluated the results of the inspections carried out in the first quarter of the year,” summarized Vladimír Velčovský, the Director General of the Czech Trade Inspection Authority. Mr. Velčovský condemned the repeated forms of consumer rights infringements from which mostly senior participants suffer. The infringements especially relate to fictional prizes which winners have to...

(Prague, April 16, 2013) Goods purchased through the internet don’t always comply with the vendor’s original offer. The CTIA officers detected it after having sampled the bed sheets set Dreamland which was claimed to be manufactured from hollow fibres with a cotton cover and suitable for allergists. However, the information labelled on the delivered goods indicated that the product would contain only 50% of cotton in the cover material and branded fibres, and there was no information about the product’s usability for allergists. The reality was...

Monitoring of fuel quality – March 2013 (Prague, March 11, 2013) The first months of the year saw very few poor quality fuel samples, but the results of March have been a bad news for consumers. Ten of 223 taken samples failed the quality requirements of the appropriate technical standards. “The laboratory analysis showed deviations from the quality standards in 3 motor petrol samples, 5 motor oil samples and 2 blended fuel samples, including three very serious deviations,” said Vladimír Velčovský, the Director General of the Czech Trade Inspe...

International control action – report on the situation in the Czech market (Prague, April 10, 2013) The Czech Trade Inspection Authority participates in various joint projects together with other surveillance authorities of the EU Member States. Inspection of laser pointers safety has been one of them. “In compliance with the instructions, our officers carried out totally 18 controls at distributors of these products and found breaches of the legally stipulated obligations in 11 cases. Four types of laser pointers were filed in the RAPEX infor...

Final report of 2012 (Prague, April 3, 2013) The inspections of offering, selling and stocking of tobacco products saw bad results for the inspected subjects. During 2012, the CTIA officers checked totally 2,671 spots of sale and found breaches of one or more obligations in 677 cases (25.4%). “640 fines amounting to more than 2 million CZK were imposed as a result of these breaches. The remaining administrative proceedings have not finished or the decisions on fines have not come into force, yet,” said the Director General of the CTIA Vladimír...

(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 ...