The Price Monitoring & Enforcement Taskforce has commenced a two-day pre-festive season inspection across the Western Division from 8 to 9 December 2025. This operation aims to verify the prices of essential items, ensure pricing consistency, and monitor stock availability to safeguard consumers ahead of the busy festive period.
The Taskforce comprises representatives from the Ministry of Finance, the Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCC), the Fiji Revenue & Customs Service (FRCS), and the Consumer Council of Fiji (CCoF).
The first day of inspections revealed a number of serious and unacceptable breaches by several supermarkets, signalling an urgent need for retailers to lift their standards or face stronger enforcement actions.
Notices have been issued for the following violations:
- Failure to display correct price labels, with some items having missing or misleading pricing information;
- Expired products found on shelves, posing health and safety risks to consumers;
- Non-compliance with the recent VAT reduction, where prices had not been adjusted accordingly;
- Misleading promotional practices, where items advertised as being “on special” were charged at normal prices despite discounted prices being displayed on shelves;
- Poor supermarket conditions, including leaking roofs, missing floor tiles, and dirty or rusted supermarket shelves and freezers, which compromise consumer safety; and
- Concerns over meat quality, including the absence of required temperature indicators and instances of soiled frozen meat.
These findings send a clear warning to unethical traders that any attempt to exploit consumers, especially during the festive season, will not be tolerated. The Taskforce is prepared to pursue escalated enforcement actions, including penalties, where deliberate non-compliance is detected.
The monitoring exercise will continue on 9 December 2025 in supermarkets across Lautoka, Ba, Tavua, Rakiraki, and Korovou, with a firm focus on ensuring full compliance with consumer protection regulations.
The Ministry of Finance and its Taskforce partners reaffirm their commitment to protecting Fijian families from unfair trading practices and ensuring that all retailers uphold the standards required under the law.
