When the Parliament decides whether to oblige the government's Strategic Analysis Centre to not only regularly analyse the prices of food products and services, but also to propose changes to the law, the Ministry of Economy and Innovation says this would mean state interference in the market and price controls.

The ministry offers broad support for the amendments to the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights, which aim to strengthen consumer protection and create a price monitoring procedure to help assess price trends more accurately, but proposes improvements to the draft.

„The obligation for „Strata“ (the Government's Centre for Strategic Analysis – BNS) to propose amendments to the law implies a possible increase in state interference in the market and price control. This could lead to imbalances between supply and demand and reduce competition, leading to
disruptions in the production and supply of essential foodstuffs“, – says the Ministry's conclusion.   

The amendments, adopted by the Seimas at the end of 2024, are aimed at reducing speculation and protecting consumers from unfair pricing – this was the explanation given by the initiator of the amendments, Yekaterina Rojaka, a member of the faction of the Democratic Union of Lithuania, when presenting the amendments to the parliament.  

According to the ministry, concrete proposals for amending the legislation should be based on a much broader analysis, which would include not only an analysis of the trends in the prices of basic foodstuffs and services, but also of the reasons behind them, and a comprehensive impact assessment of the new regulation. 

The Ministry proposes that the specific list of goods and services to be monitored should be approved by the Minister. 

After receiving the authorities' conclusions on the amendments, the Ministry will prepare proposals to the Government, whose conclusion will be assessed by the Parliament.