The sanction is between BGN 50,000 and BGN 70,000, because the menu should have written how much such a portion weighs on average
Regardless of the mass mockery of the customer who complained on Facebook about an overpriced ribeye steak in a restaurant in Varna, the restaurant can still be fined.
According to Ignat Arsenov, head of the directorate for control activities in the Commission for Consumer Protection (CCP), the violation is in the announced price per gram. The menu says that 100 grams of the steak in question costs BGN 35, but the customer does not know in advance how much his portion will weigh. Furthermore
this BGN 35 is the price for raw meat,
which shrinks after heat treatment, and this was also not correct, Ignatov explained to “24 Chasa”.
“The explanation that this 35 BGN was the price of the raw meat that the restaurant manager gave us is inadequate, because nobody buys anything raw in a restaurant. This can only be applied to some very expensive, exotic fish that the visitor sees alive and chooses. But in the menus, according to the Law on Tourism, the price must refer to one portion”, Ignatov is categorical.
In the Consumer Protection Law, a special text states that prices in Bulgaria must be declared in units of the SI metric system, which means that
may be in meters, kilograms, cubic meters or per unit
When the price is per kilogram, it should be announced in this way even if the goods are sold in bulk, Ignatov believes. In this case, however, there is another violation for which the restaurant can pay a hefty fine – unfair trade practice.
“It is about a practice that can mislead the user. In this case, there should have been additional information
how average weighs one such a steak
so that the user can draw a true conclusion. If this is not written on the menu, it is considered that the consumer can be misled, and this is an unfair commercial practice. However, it is a common phenomenon. Especially by the sea, this happens with many products, including fruits sold at a stall”, Gabriela Rumenova, founder of the platform “We, the consumers”, explained to “24 Chasa”.
According to her, the sanction for such an unfair practice can be between BGN 50,000 and BGN 70,000 for the first violation.
However, other consumer protection experts pointed out that the procedure for imposing such sanctions is a bit more complicated. The law first requires the chairman of the Consumer Protection Commission to issue an order declaring
the specific commercial practice as unfair
and forbid it to be applied. Only after that can he impose a fine with an administrative act, which, however, in this case the restaurateur can appeal. However, the ban order cannot be appealed and if it is issued, it will mean that in future the prices will not be able to be announced for 100 grams, but only for a whole portion.
According to Ignat Arsenov, the owner of the restaurant justified himself by saying that the waiters always warned the visitors in advance that this was not the price for a whole portion. But according to him, this does not matter at all, since the law requires that this be written on the menu, and in an understandable way.
The fact that the injured consumer was probably unaware that the ribeye steak he was consuming was the most expensive beef steak possible, brought social media to life.
On Thursday, the chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Restaurants, Richard Alibegov, saw in the noise surrounding the scandalous bill a hostile campaign against Bulgarian tourism and demanded that it be stopped in some way.
And his colleague from the Association of Restaurants in Bulgaria, Marin Sotirov, even called during a meeting of the departmental tourism commission in the NRA parliament to check where the person in question, who dared to complain on Facebook, had such pocket money to consume such expensive steaks.
2023-07-21 19:30:00
#restaurant #golden #steaks #fined #Video
