On April 7, 2020, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, the MinCIT and the Ministry of Agriculture (“ L the Ministries ”), jointly, they issued an initial list of 26 essential products (“ The Products < / u> ”) through Resolution 078 of 2020 (“ Resolution 078 ”), giving scope to Decree 507 of April 1, 2020 (“ Decree 507 ”), for the purposes of daily monitoring the retail prices of THE PRODUCTS during the current emergency due to COVID-19 , by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (“ DANE “). The foregoing, with the purpose of reporting to the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (“ SIC “) this information, especially atypical increases in retail prices, every five (5) business days, so that in the cases it deems pertinent and in which there is an absence of reasonable justification for such increases, carry out the relevant preliminary inquiries and, if applicable, file charges and formally initiate investigations to decide on an alleged infringement of the free competition regime or the consumer protection regime.
These decrees are of special importance, taking into account that the measures issued to are applicable for being a market agent that participates in the value chain of THE PRODUCTS , and must periodically report the prices of sale to the public of the same
Based on the information received, DANE carries out the analysis and the corresponding review to issue the reports addressed to the SIC in which the information discriminated by: (i ) kind of product; (ii) product reference by barcode (includes brand); (iii) unit of measure and quantity; (iv) department; (v) company (name of the chain or name of the establishment); (vi) percentage of purchase of these products by type of establishment (neighborhood stores, chain stores or supermarkets, market places, among others); (vii) best-selling references.
To date, DANE has published five (5) reports in which the products with the greatest increases and variations are related, as well as the establishments that show the greatest increases in the country, by product and by department (to see a consolidated summary of the top 5 of the products and companies reported by DANE to the SIC).
Finally, it is worth emphasizing that the importance of these reports is closely related to the powers held by the SIC as the Sole Competition Authority in Colombia, since through these measures taken by the National Government it is sought protect the welfare of Colombian consumers in the framework of the national situation due to COVID-19 through the legal power granted to the SIC through article 6 of Law 1340 of 2009 that allows it to impose sanctions of up to one hundred thousand (100,000) legal monthly minimum wages in force for legal entities and up to two thousand (2,000) legal monthly minimum wages in force for natural persons who violate provisions on the protection of free competition, and up to (2,000) wages monthly legal minimums in force for violations of the consumer protection regime.