In the middle of the working day, distributors of food supplements arrive at the Sigulda Devons Cultural Centre with large boxes in their hands. Before that, Sigulda residents received information about the "miraculous" product in the form of a leaflet in their mailboxes. Now, at the "seminar", the products are offered for purchase.
In a short speech to the assembled, the speaker tries to give the impression of credibility by saying that he represents the international pharmaceutical company Wellmed. The speaker does not mention his name. And the name of the company is different. But the customers – mostly elderly people – come and ask how to restore their hearing, and eyesight and solve other health problems.
A participant in the "De Facto" experiment approached the speaker with a question about how to get rid of back pain. The "consultant" found a solution without long questioning and diagnosis: their remedy can stop the pain, especially if taken for a long time. One month's dose is four bottles, costing €56. The consultant recommends doubling the dose.
"You cannot, for example, seriously cure rheumatological diseases, heart diseases, joint or skin diseases with supplements. However, the distributors of dietary supplements are very aggressive and brainwashing," comments Health Minister Hosams Abu Meri (New Unity).
Asked by De Facto whether the company in question is misleading consumers in this way, a spokesperson for the company says no and asks that the company's management be contacted. The company EuroFitoFarm distributes these substances in Latvia. Its officially reported turnover last year exceeded EUR 36,000. No one from the management could be reached for comment.
The sole owner of the company is a Ukrainian citizen, Roman Melnychuk. He also founded the Estonian company Standartfarm 5 years ago, under the name of which the abovementioned food supplements are registered in Latvia. In Estonia, a similar deception of the population was also observed at the beginning of the year.
The misleading behavior of EuroFitoFarm was already mentioned in Latvian media five years ago. It was only last year that PTAC opened a case after repeated reports in the press. A year has passed since then, with no result and the distributors continue their activities. "It seems like a long time, but at the same time, it is not long because it is a cross-border case. Two authorities have to work together and cooperate. I think by the end of the year there will definitely be solutions," said Zaiga Liepiņa, Director of PTAC.
And this is not the first case where the center has taken longer to crack down on violators. It took at least four years after the complaints emerged for consumer watchdogs to punish non-bank lender Latvijas Hipotēka, which left residents without their property.
The Center has never imposed the maximum penalty for unfair commercial practices. Last year, the ceiling for fines was tripled to €300,000.
The Latvian Association for Consumer Protection advocates abolishing the fine caps. "If we talk about the digital services legislation, digital giants. For example, a €300,000 cap may not be an appropriate penalty if the infringement was really big for consumers," said Baiba Miltoviča, a member of the association's board.
In ten years, PTAC has taken decisions in 2,687 cases. Half of these cases (1,379) concern misleading commercial practices. 80 cases have been opened on food supplements. In a third of the cases (25), the trader has remedied the infringement voluntarily. However, it is not known what the Center achieved in at least half of the cases.
Gambling advertising, which is also unauthorized but appears frequently, has not been the subject of any cases in the last ten years. Asked why this was not done, the PTAC Director admitted that "there was no need to bring cases forward".
Consumer credit supervision is also difficult. Of the 386 cases opened by the Center in the last 10 years, decisive action, such as an obligation to put an end to the infringement, followed in 29 cases. The data provided to De Facto does not show how the vast majority of cases ended.
The Consumers' Association speaks of a lack of capacity of the authority. It tends to have crisis situations where there are too many applications and the processing time is extended to four months. "PTAC needs more resources so that they have capacity. Directly to the complaints department, the monitoring department. More people are needed," says Tekla Žabova, board member of the Latvian Association for Consumer Protection.
In practice, there are fewer people. This year's budget for the Center had to be cut by €200,000.
The Minister of Economics did not promise additional resources for the institution, calling for more efficient use of existing ones. "We will measure the productivity of employees, we will use various tools, solutions that will help the heads of institutions to organize their daily processes," said Minister of Economics Viktors Valainis (Greens and Farmers Union).
