Competition Council: Price monitor in the making, 1 million food and automotive fuel products listed

The Competition Council has finalized the tender specifications and will this week launch the tender for the acquisition of the information system for the development of the "Price Monitor" online comparator, which will include data on more than one million food products and motor fuels, president of the competition watchdog Bogdan Chiritoiu told AGERPRES.

The new online platform will include both the comprehensive form of the Food Price Monitor, an instrument released by the competition authority at the end of 2016, and a comparator of automotive fuel prices.

Considering the success of the pilot project, the Competition Council wants to expand the Price Monitor at national level for all food products, less the spirits marketed by the major retail chains.

According to the Council, the Price Monitor is intended to provide consumers with the information they need for the weekly food shopping, helping them to make a well-grounded choice amongst several stores, and also to increase competitive pressure on the stores.

As far as the Fuel Price Monitor is concerned, it will be an instrument to stimulate competition among automotive fuel retailers, both by the prices and by the services offered.

The online platform will list the prices for all types of fuels (petrol and diesel) in the OMV, Petrom, Rompetrol, Mol, Lukoil, Socar and Gazprom networks throughout the country.

In order to create the "Price Monitor" online platform, the competition watchdog wants to acquire an Integrated Information System that includes a set of IT applications and the licenses required for operation, hardware equipment, application maintenance services as well as user / administrator training. The contract is worth an estimated 1.7 million lei, an amount pinpointed in the approved budget of the Competition Council for 2018.

"I think you remember, when we released the pilot version of the Food Price Monitor, there were over 1.9 million hits on the first day and the application was down. We want to prevent this from happening again," added Chiritoiu.