More than 100 companies have joined euro fair pricing agreement in Estonia

BNS - By Saturday afternoon more than 100 companies in Estonia had joined the fair pricing agreement, committing themselves to follow good practice and refrain from ungrounded price increases in the switchover to the euro.

Among the companies that have acceded to the agreement are all the 11 commercial banks that are members of the Estonian Banking Association. An updated list of the companies is available from the website ahk.eesti.ee from Saturday.

As of 5 p.m. on Saturday the list had the names of 104 businesses on it.

The purpose of the fair pricing agreement is to prevent economically ungrounded price increases of goods and services during the switch to euro. The experience of many countries shows that similar agreements have helped to prevent unreasonable price increases and joining the agreement has given businesses the opportunity to assure the public that adoption of the euro in itself does not entail a price increase.

Enterprises joining the agreement give their consent that they will follow good practice and will not increase prices in the conversion to euro unless there is an economic justification to it. The businesses that join the agreement have the right to use a sticker with a corresponding logo and other visual materials.

The fair pricing agreement is supervised by the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and abidance by its terms is monitored by the Consumer Protection Board.