Prishtina, 11 September 2023 – Citizens should exercise caution when purchasing efficient appliances to be subsidized by the Ministry of Economy, as currently products that do not meet the efficiency criteria of the household appliances are being advertised in the market.

On 18 August 2023, the Call for support of household consumers to invest in efficient household appliances and renewable energy systems – sanitary water heating solar system was announced.

Appliances that do not meet the criteria outlined in the open Call on 18.08.2023, will not be subsidized.

According to the laws in force in the Republic of Kosovo, any form of defraud is prohibited. Criminal Code No. 04/L-082 of the Republic of Kosovo, Article 299 Defrauding purchasers,  Paragraph 1, provides that whoever, with the intent to defraud purchasers, distributes products stamped with written data that does not correspond to the content, type, origin or quality of the product, distributes products whose weight or quality does not correspond to what is regularly expected in such products or distributes products without a stamp indicating the content, type, origin, or quality of the product when such a stamp is required by law shall be punished by a fine or by imprisonment of up to three (3) years.

While paragraph 2 provides that whoever, with the intent to defraud purchasers, falsely declares a reduction in price or an expected increase in the price of goods or in any other way openly uses a false advertisement shall be punished by a fine or by imprisonment of up to one (1) year.

Citizens who encounter in the market products being sold through defrauding, should contact the Consumer Protection Department, which operates within the MIET.

The phone number where consumers can address their complaints is: 0800 11000.

Submission of complaints: https://konsumatori.rks-gov.net/complaintPost.php and the Consumer Protection website is: https://konsumatori.rks-gov.net/

Below you may find the link where you can verify the category of the appliance (license label), as to which category the efficient household appliance belongs: https://eprel.ec.europa.eu/screen/home

In the following photos, you can see how the efficiency labels of appliances that will be subsidized with the support of the European Union look like (European Union in Kosovo):