Filenews 11 November 2023 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
One product burden we pay as consumers and another is the actual -net- weight of the product that ends up with us.
This is because many suppliers – sellers weigh the products after placing them in the packages, resulting in the weight of the product including the weight of the packaging and at the same time increasing the price of the material purchased by the consumer.
The additional cost borne by the consumer from the above practice may not be so great each time, however, if one considers the products we buy every day or in total every month, then he finds that the cost for packaging charged depending on the cost of a product is significant in the end.
As of January 1, 2024, the tactics described above will change in Cyprus, as a decree issued by Energy Minister George Papanastasiou will be implemented.
According to the Director of the Consumer Service, Konstantinos Karagiorgis, the ministerial decree will require businesses to deduct from the final price of a product the weight of the packaging. That is, the indicated weight will concern only the contents and not the packaging.
As Mr. Karagiorgis clarified, this practice will be applied to products purchased by the consumer and their weight and price are determined during the final weighing. That is, if someone buys a kilogram of savoury items from a bakery, the weight of the cardboard box in which they will be placed for the consumer to transport them will be deducted, resulting in paying less than today.
It is worth mentioning that the decree will specify that the weight of packages should be deducted from the weight of the product, as well as from the price. That is, the tare weight of all types of packaging (paper, plastic, wooden, etc.) will be calculated. As we have been told, when the weight of the package is too small, this measure will not be applied.
According to the Director of the Consumer Protection Service, the new practice that will be applied with the new year will not concern already packaged products, on which their net weight is indicated on the packaging.
The Consumer Service decided to make the change after receiving complaints from consumers who had found that they were paying for a certain weight of product, but in reality the product they were buying weighed less, as the weight of the packaging was also taken into account in the final weighing and the final price.
