- – INKA: “We did what we had to do to protect citizens. We want transparency in the bread market and compliance with the relevant legislation. Consumers cannot buy frozen bread as fresh.”
- – The company VENETIS with an out-of-court order sent to the bakers speaks “of a purely revengeful and false complaint”.
Βy Vangelis Triantis
“War” between bakers and the company VENETIS, has broken out on the way of distribution of bread. The reason for this was a complaint from a private individual to the Consumer Institute, regarding the company VENETIS, which concerns both the way of distribution and marketing of bread. The complainant claims, inter alia, that the shops of VENETIS allegedly sell frozen bread as fresh and even unpackaged, ‘misleading’ consumers. The complaint of the individual has been forwarded to both the Interdepartmental Market Control Unit (DIMEA) of the Ministry of Development on the marketing part and to the Single Food Control Authority (EFET) for the quality part. For its part, however, the company VENETIS with an out-of-court complaint sent to the Guild of Bakers of Athens Suburbs and Surroundings underlines that it is “a premeditated purely vindictive and false complaint” that came from a private individual after his defeat in a legal dispute he had with the company. Is this an isolated incident or is it the beginning of a business war over bread?
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Complaint to the Consumer Institute
In mid-May last year, a complaint was sent to the Consumer Institute by an individual regarding the company VENETIS Foods. The complaint referred to “the protection of consumers’ health and the prevention of misleading them” on the part of VENETIS. In particular, according to the complaint, the company’s franchised stores bear the trademark “VENETIS Bakery”. However, as the complainant claimed, “In reality, it is neither a bakery nor a bread shop since it does not sell bread”. Also, the majority of the products it sells are “frozen without any information sign inside the shops as required by law”.
“The managers of the company VENETIS violate and do not apply the law on bakery, the food, and beverage code, and the community directives without considering the health of consumers since they give their product’s properties that they do not have, being interested only in financial gain,” he argued, among other things in his complaint.
However, the individual’s complaint did not stop there. According to him, bakery products were being transported in breach of the relevant legislation and some products were labeled “baked pastries”. However, according to the complainant, if these products were indeed baked, the company “should have transported them and delivered them to the shops packaged for sale”.
“In reality, these are half-cooked products which are double-cooked in the shops in order to give a false impression that they are fresh in order to mislead the consumer”, the complainant stressed.
The Bakers’ announcement
On May 29, 2023, the Consumer Institute sent this complaint by email to the Bakers Guild of Athens, Suburbs, and Surroundings, as well as to the Federation of Bakers of Greece.
The Bakers Guild of Athens, Suburbs, and Surroundings “is the largest Baker’s Association in Greece”, as highlighted on their website, and has 1,500 active members. Two days later, SAAPP asked INKA to send the relevant documents of the complaint in question. As it happened on the same day.
In early June, the Bakers Guild of Athens, Suburbs, and Surroundings issued a statement regarding the individual’s complaint. In it, he described the complaint as “very serious, given that it concerns the health of consumers, as well as the viability of the craft bakery sector”. At the same time, he also blamed the president of the Federation of Greek Bakers for “overlooking” the severity of the complaint. However, according to information from Data Journalists, the Federation of Greek Bakers forwarded the complaint to both EFET and the General Secretariat of Commerce.
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Read the full statement of the SAAPP
Data Journalists contacted the SAAPP as part of a general journalistic investigation. The representatives of the Federation did not wish to comment further and referred us to the statement they had issued.
According to reports, however, they are not going to stop there. It is significant that after the elections, once the new government emerges, they intend to make a series of moves. What they are asking for, and what they are going to put on the table, is simply to enforce the law as far as bread is concerned, and they note that they do not want the VENETIS chain to be “closed”, but to comply with the law. In other words, if indeed unpackaged bread is sold which is frozen and not fresh, the legislation must be complied with and it must be sold packaged.
VENETIS: The complaint is false and vengeful
Veneti’s side responded with an out-of-court complaint to the announcement of SAAPP. It argues that the private party’s complaint does not relate to a complaint from a consumer concerned about the health of the consuming public”, but is “a former franchisee of the company VENETIS”, who after many years of litigation, was defeated by a final decision.
In particular, the VENETIS side argues that “this is not a spontaneous complaint but is purely revengeful and false” which came about after he was defeated in a legal dispute. Indeed, as the VENETIS side claims, in recent months it has submitted “a number of false complaints”, “having addressed every public service and body that exists in Greece without any result”.
«..”…Your uncritical adoption of such complaints by this person is either due to incomplete information as the complainant apparently concealed the fact that he is in a multi-year legal dispute with our company with which he was defeated, or to your incorrect assessment of the facts and the content of the complaint…” underlined among other things in the out-of-court letter of the VENETIS side.
Transmission of the complaint to EFET and the Ministry of Development
On May 29, 2023, the President of the General Federation of Consumers of Greece – INKA, George Lechouritis forwarded the complaint against the company VENETIS, to EFET, and the General Secretariat of Consumer Affairs.
The letter to EFET referred to the “seriousness of the complaint”, as it concerns “items that are the main axis of the diet of citizens-consumers”. In addition, INKA expressed its “expectation” and “demand” “for an immediate examination of the above issues in relation to the legislation in force and the drawing of a relevant conclusion”.
In fact, Mr. Lechouritis warned in writing that if the content of the complaint was not examined, he would issue a press release.
“Otherwise, as a body entrusted with the promotion of all kinds of issues related to the interests and protection of the consumers, we declare that if the content of the above complaint is not immediately examined, we will proceed as INKA to issue a press release on the disclosure of the above complaint, making special mention of any delay in informing our organization on your part,” said the letter of INKA.
EFET did not request the accompanying documents of the complaint
On June 19, 2023, the Unified Food Control Body sent a written response to the General Federation of Consumers of Greece, which was also notified to the Federation of Bakers of Greece. In it, EFET describes in detail the way and the operating framework regarding the management of reports – complaints that it receives from time to time.
Then, reference is made to the complaint of the individual forwarded to him by the Federation of Consumers. As stated in the reply letter “… EFET has already received a plethora of petitions from this individual, which it has managed in accordance with the above provisions. These reports had two parts. One deals with issues of health interest and the other with issues of marketing.”
According to the reply letter, EFET investigated the reports in question as regards the part of the report concerning the finding of any infringements of sanitary interest within its competence and has taken the action provided for by law. With regard to the marketing issues, it has forwarded the reports/complaints to the respective licensing authorities on the basis of their competence.”
However, according to Data Journalists, although EFET accepted the complaint of the individual, it did not ask INKA for its accompanying documents. That is the material that, according to the complainant, proves that the legislation is not complied with on the part of VENETIS.
The response of the General Secretariat of Commerce
Unlike EFET, the General Secretariat of Commerce, along with the complaint received the attached documents. It then forwarded the individual’s complaint to the Interdepartmental Market Control Unit (DIMEA) of the Ministry of Development, in order to examine whether what is reported is true. On June 19 it informed both the complainant and the Consumer Institute in writing of its actions.
«…”…In view of the above with which your department received a pronounced complaint for operational control against a specific company on issues of misleading the buying public, issues of safe transport of the products sold, which included invoices, photographs, brochures, catalogs, etc., and within the scope of our department’s responsibilities, we inform you that they are in force and relevant to the case…” is noted in the response letter of the General Secretariat of Commerce.
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Read the written answer in detail
Giorgos Lechouritis: We want transparency in the bread market
Data Journalists contacted the president of the General Federation of Consumers of Greece – INKA, George Lechouritis. As he stresses what he calls for as the Federation of Consumers of Greece is transparency in the bread market and to comply with the law. Whether or not the complaint is justified, as they say, will be judged by the competent authorities.
“We as INKA General Federation of Consumers of Greece did what we had to do for the protection of citizens, that is Consumers, to inform every relevant department and authority. What we want is transparency in the bread market and compliance with the relevant legislation. Consumers cannot buy frozen bread as fresh.”
