Act No. 265/2024 amending Act No. 526/1990 Coll., on prices, was published in the Collection of Laws of the Czech Republic relatively recently. The amendment to the Act on Prices will come into force as of 1 January 2025. Therefore, traders still have some time to get acquainted with the possible effects of the amendment on their practice and, if necessary, prepare for such effects. 

However, it should be noted that this is a relatively extensive amendment and in some aspects (and for certain groups of traders) also a relatively significant amendment. In terms of the substantive scope of the amendment, it can be briefly outlined that it mainly concerns certain changes in the area of price registration, changes in the area of mandatory indication of specific prices, the introduction of an explicit obligation to indicate the price in Czech currency, the introduction of an obligation according to which the indication of the selling price must be unambiguous, easily recognisable and easily legible and, last but not least, changes in the area of offences and an increase in the upper rates of fines for certain offences.

However, in the context of this article we would like to draw more attention to the area of mandatory display of specific prices for packaged non-food products.
It is said that the devil is in the detail. With a little exaggeration, we could say that this saying describes quite well the nature of the change that awaits traders from 1 January 2025 in the area of displaying specific prices for these products.

Let us just recall that, in general, a unit price is the price per unit of quantity of a product, where the unit of quantity may be (for example) 1 kg, 1 litre, 100g, 100 ml, etc. Currently, the Law on Prices [Section 13(7)] applies the obligation to indicate the specific price to packaged food products which are labelled with an indication of the quantity, volume or weight of the product in accordance with the relevant legislation^[1]), as well as to those packaged types of non-food products which are listed in the special legislation regulating nominal weights and nominal volumes of certain types of prepackaged goods.

In the case of packaged non-food products, that special legislation was Decree No 330/2000 Coll. (and its Annex No 1, points 3 to 11). However, that Decree was (already) repealed on 11 April 2009 without replacement. This had the effect that the legal obligation to indicate the specific price also for packaged non-food products remained in force, but it became (and still remains) a sort of contentless and effectively legally unenforceable obligation^[2]). For sales practice, this then meant (and still means) that if a trader indicated/indicates the specific price for a non-food product, he did/does so de jure voluntarily, without being subject to a penalty in the form of a fine from the supervisory authority for any failure to indicate the specific price for a packaged non-food product.

This is what will change with effect from 1 January 2025 under the amendment to the Prices Act. 
In this respect, the key provision of Section 13(7) of the Prices Act (as amended) has defined a statutorypower for the Ministry of Finance to issue (in the form of a decree) a list of packaged non-food products for which traders will be obliged to indicate specific prices. The Ministry of Finance has already implemented this statutory authorisation and has issued (with effect from 1 January 2025) Decree No 291/2024 Coll. on the establishment of a list of types of packaged non-food products which are subject to the obligation to be marked with a specific price when sold to consumers^[3]).

In view of the above, we therefore recommend that traders compare the list of types of products defined by Decree No 291/2024 Coll. with their portfolio of products offered for sale to consumers in good time, so that they are able to identify their specific packaged non-food products which will be subject to the price marking requirement from 1 January 2012. 1.2025 to the statutory obligation to indicate the specific price within the meaning of Section 13(7) of the Prices Act, as a breach of this obligation will be punishable (as from 1.1.2025) by a fine of up to EUR 5 million. CZK.

Mgr. Marek Ždímal, attorney at law

Mgr. Jaroslav Hroza, attorney at law and partner

^[1]) Currently, the Act on Prices refers (for example) to Act No. 110/1997 Coll., on Food and Tobacco Products, as amended. Once amended as of 1 January 2025, this categorisation of packaged food products will be based on Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers. However, in our opinion, this change will not be of any particular significance in practice, as Act No 110/1997 Coll., on foodstuffs, is already quite strongly harmonised by Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council in the area of the provision of food information to consumers.

^[2]) The aforementioned lack of content and legal unenforceability of the relevant legal obligation was logically due to the fact that it was not specified in more detail (and in the manner foreseen by law) which specific (types of) non-food products are/should be subject to the mandatory indication of the specific price.

^[3]) It may be added that even if the packaged non-food product in question falls within one of the categories defined by Decree No 291/2024 Coll., the indication of the specific price of such product will not be compulsory if the product is sold to the consumer in combination with another product in a single package and at a single price (the provisions of Section 2 of Decree No 291/2024 Coll.).