- The Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA) in Estonia is advising retail chains to adjust prices in anticipation of the two percentage point increase in the VAT rate starting next year.
- The TTJA emphasizes the importance of clear pricing information for consumers, ensuring that the cost of items on price tags matches the amount charged at the checkout.
- Pricing strategies to mitigate tax increases are left to the discretion of the traders, as pricing is considered a component of the freedom of enterprise.
- Large stores may face challenges in changing prices overnight, so the TTJA recommends putting tags on products earlier, displaying both the price until December 31 and the price from January 1.
- Supermarket chains like Prisma Peremarket, Selver, and Rimi Estonia are finalizing their plans to implement the VAT increases, aiming to make the changes as customer-friendly as possible.
- Prisma Peremarket requests a transitional period, but none was granted. They will need to raise some prices to absorb the costs resulting from the VAT rate change.
- Selver will potentially implement new prices from December, with most changes happening in early 2024. Price changes will be managed to balance the impact of the VAT increases.
- Rimi Estonia is still establishing a concrete strategy for re-pricing.
Source: news.err.ee
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
