PolishTrade Inspection has carried out the survey of a number of food, electronic, textile and other products. The survey results are disastrous. In many cases, the entrepreneurs declare on the labels material better than they really are in the products. Even one third of textile products is suspected to be labelled in a wrong way. On March 8, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection informed that the Trade Inspection controlled textile products in 2011 and 2012. The verification encompassed 481 entrepreneurs and 3377 batches of various types of products.
1129 batches (33,7%) were questioned as to the packaging, and 185 (5,9%) – as to the quality.
“The worst results were for hosiery and apparel. Over 1/3 of all products controlled (34,5%) had the declared composition discordant with the real one, informed the Office.
The Inspection reminds that fibres which are the core element of any fabrics, may be natural (such as cotton, flax, wool, natural silk) and chemical ones accounting for man-made ones made of compounds occurring in nature (like viscose, artificial silk, glass fibres) and synthetic – made from compounds absent in nature (like polyester, polyamide, acryl, elastane).
“Every manufacturer must place on the label the information saying what kinds of fibres is a product made from – i. e. inform on its components” – the Inspection reminds.
Most often, the Inspection discovered that the manufacturer used a different material than that stated on the label, or he violated the Act on the Polish Language – by placing foreign names on the label. For instance, controlled tights had only 2% of elastane admixture, instead of the declared 20%. The greater elastane content, the tights are more stretchy and durable.
A French, women’s shawl, according to the manufacturer’s declaration, was to be made of 100% cashmere (a high-quality wool), whereas it really consisted of 100% viscose. The Inspectors questioned also trousers which instead of 65% cotton/35% polyester blend consisted of pure polyester.
On the label or a an insert, the buyer must see information in Polish about the raw materials’ content, together with Polish names of fibres. They must be printed in big, legible letters, presented in percentage, in the decreasing order (such as: cotton 80%, polyester 20%). However, as the control results show, according to the information on the label, the clients might buy apparel made from: elana, polyestre, elastanhe baumwolle, polynosic, dorlastan, mamut, elastik, in colours of: bronzo, cappuccino or blumarine – where none of them is a Polish name.
On the other hand, the shops were reprimanded for incorrect information about product prices. There were no price labels, no prices directly on the products as well as on the window-displays. There was no information on the period of price-reduction or the reason why the price was reduced. There were discrepancies between prices on the stand and that displayed on the cash register, and there were no price readers in mega-stores.
Source: Polish Press Agency