A FIANNA Fáil MEP has called on the European Commission to investigate large international retailers which fail to pass on price reductions arising from changes to exchange rates.
Dublin MEP Eoin Ryan has written to EU competition commissioner Nellie Kroes calling for an investigation of retailers’ failure to pass on savings on goods repriced from sterling to euros.
Mr Ryan, a member of the economics committee of the European Parliament, said the issue was very important for Irish consumers, particularly during the current difficult economic times, because of their exposure to currency changes on goods imported from the sterling area.
“It is simply unacceptable that the exact same consumer goods are sold in the same retail shops priced, for example, at €30 in the Republic but selling for £14 sterling in Britain or the North, or where goods which are selling for £99 sterling are available here for €150.”
Before Christmas, a Forfás report found that higher prices in shops in the Republic were not justified by the higher costs of doing business.
It found a price difference of 25 per cent between shops in Dublin and Belfast but calculated that higher operating costs justified a margin of only 5-6 per cent.
Mr Ryan said he accepted the findings of the Forfás report but this did not justify large retailers ripping off the consumer.
He called on retail chains to index euro and sterling currency changes within their price structures for consumer products.
Meanwhile, a new website, dualpricing.ie, claims to allow shoppers to compare sterling and euro prices by excluding VAT and currency differences. It has complied lists of euro and sterling prices which shows differences of up to 70 per cent for some goods.
In one major retailer, a pair of socks costing £2 sterling is priced in the Republic at €4, a difference of 69 per cent. A toy retailer is selling bubbles costing £3 for €8, again a difference of 69 per cent, while a supermarket is selling razor blades at a mark-up of 61 per cent on the sterling price.