Czech Billa supermarkets sell Austrian groceries. Without Czech labels

Billa is an Austrian supermarket chain owed by Rewe Group. There are more than one hundred supermarkets in the Czech Republic. And they seem to be selling groceries that are intended for the Austrian (German, Italian or Swiss…) markets – without Czech labels that define ingredients, content specification, expiry dates, etc…

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The photo on the right is of a bottle of Rauch Ice Tea. First I was surprised to notice (as I was taking it from the shelf) that it would have a German SMS competition on the label but then I remembered that there used to be international shows and the labels displayed the instruction in multiple languages. But no, the label is entirely in German with some Italian pieces of information.

According to the Czech Consumer Protection Act products sold in the Czech Republic must have “instructions” in English. There are some rare exceptions applicable to products in case of which the use is obvious. I can imagine. Hammers, potato peelers and similar tools.

Sec. 9 of act number 634/1992 says:

The vendor is obliged to inform the customer accordingly of the characteristics of a product, its use and maintenance and risks that might arise out of improper use of the product. The vendor can not explain his failure to do so by arguing that the necessary information was not provided to the vendor by the manufacturer, supplier and the like.

And Sec. 11 of the said act says:

The vendor is obliged to make sure that the information referred to in Sec. 9, if provided in a written form, is provided in the Czech language.

Hier brauchen Sie ein Woerterbuch 🙂

Obviously there is some logistic mystery behind the Billa company. This batch was imported directly from Austria with no intermediary company involved. And naturally, the table of ingredients is, again, entirely in German – which I am sure must be a blatant violation of the law (Czech Consumer Protection Act). The “general tips for consumers” provided by the Czech Food Inspection Authority suggest the same.

Not listing the ingredients in Czech might be very dangerous. Of course, people who are allergic do not buy groceries they are unsure about, but there might be customers who assume that they understand what the label says and they may die from a specific form of “overdose” or food poisoning because they are something-intolerant.

UPDATE JUNE 18: I contacted the Czech Food Inspection Authority regarding the potential violation of the Consumer Protection Act. They have fifteen days to “investigate” and let me know… I am thinking of doing a guest-writer article for this weekly news-magazine that I have had professional contacts with…

Czechs steal enormous amounts of electricity

More than 3,000 cases of illegal electricity consumption were investigated and busted last year in the Czech Republic, the DENIK daily wrote. The electricity producer CEZ did the math and found out that the illegal consumption corresponds to that of a city of 10,000 people for the entire year.

Most usually people who do not want to pay their electricity bills just bypass the meter. Or, other people just break into a switchbox and connect their wires to other people’s meter, so these payers have higher bills.

Of course the CEZ company is not altogether innocent in this issue either. It has a special department that focuses on busting these illegal power takeoffs. The department employs tough brainless SWAT-esque individuals who have become known for absolutely insensitive behavior towards client, who are often “innocent”. Numerous lawsuits have been filed against these “investigators”.

The CEZ company argues it must be extremely tough on these felons, otherwise the losses would have to be paid by the honest bill-payers who have no debts.

That makes no sense: since so much electricity has already been “stolen” (corresponding to the consumption of a town of 10,000) and since the company generates huge profits, the losses affect the final annual numbers, hence the shareholders’ profits.

Any illegal power takeoff is an accident waiting to happen (short-circuit-related fires). No question about that. But the CEZ company is probably the least favorite business entity in the country because it has no competitor of any kind (in relation to average Czechs, of course, I am not talking about solar energy systems) and Czechs just have to use their services, no matter how client-unfriendly and crappy they are.