Consumer group bids to beat the car park profiteers

THE CONSUMERS’ Association yesterday published a pricelist for car park fees in order to protect the public from possible profiteering.

The list includes prices that existed before and after the euro switchover, as well as the names of car park owners across the island. The only exception was Nicosia, where certain owners failed to give the association their data, resulting in their explanations and names being excluded from the list.

Association Head Petros Markou said that even though the vast majority of car park owners had acted correctly, there was a fraction of owners who charged up to 40 per cent more after the changeover.

“The reason for this study was to bring these cases to the surface,” Markou explained yesterday. “But I would like to say that the vast majority of car park owners have behaved correctly, public and private.”

He added: “With some owners it was impossible to find their information or their contact details, so for that reason we decided to publish the list of prices so consumers could use it themselves.”

Markou reminded consumers that the association was keeping a close eye on the market and would continue to do so until August or September.

“We want to keep consumers informed, but also act as a deterrent to businesses who wish to profiteer,” said Markou.

More information can be found the association’s website www.cyprusconsumers.org.cy

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.