Serbia's New Digital Price List Rule Starts September 1
From September 1, Serbia's largest retailers must publish digital price lists. Shoppers who pay more at the checkout than the shelf shows can demand the shelf price.
Three billion dinars (about 25.6 million euros) is the annual revenue threshold above which a retailer in Serbia must, starting September 1, 2026, publish its price list in digital form. The threshold comes from a bylaw issued under the Consumer Protection Act, whose Article 6 has applied in full since August 2.
The obligation does not fall on every retailer, only on the biggest ones by turnover. Vesna Perincic of the Republic Consumers’ Union says the range of products it covers is narrower than expected.
“It applies to food products, milk, oil, sugar, so everything that was already covered by the earlier decree. It has been extended slightly to alcohol, then to baby food and products, and to pet food, but mostly just those categories. It doesn’t apply to other retailers, say those selling electronics, which also matters to consumers who want to compare prices, since that’s a bigger expense,” Perincic points out.
Which products are covered?
The list of goods set out in the bylaw is specific and long. It includes:
- milk and dairy products, eggs
- soft drinks and alcoholic beverages, coffee and tea
- fresh fruit and vegetables, bread and pastries
- meat, fish and frozen products
- sugar, honey, flour, pasta, oils and fats, rice, salt and spices
- baby food, diapers, hygiene products and cosmetics
- pet food
For each of these products, the price list must show the name, brand, barcode, unit of measurement, selling price and price per unit of measurement. When a price is reduced, the retailer must also enter the start and end dates of the promotion, along with the value added tax rate.
Retailers must publish a separate price list for each store on their own website and update it in real time as soon as any price changes. If price lists differ between stores belonging to the same company, or if a retailer charges a different price for goods sold remotely, each version of the price list must be clearly labeled, so shoppers don’t confuse the in-store price with the online one.
The Open Data Portal and CSV format
The second part of the obligation runs separately from the retailer’s own website. The data also has to be submitted to the Open Data Portal, in machine-readable CSV format, so that prices from different retailers can be compared automatically. Each retailer gets a single combined file covering all of its stores, and the file name stays fixed, without a date attached. That same file holds two kinds of data, the latest active price list and a monthly historical snapshot, marked so one can be told apart from the other.
The historical snapshot is created on the first day of every calendar month and is kept permanently after that, without being deleted. An example from the bylaw itself illustrates the mechanics: the price list in force on September 1 becomes both the historical snapshot and the active price list. If a price changes on September 2, a new active price list is published, while the September snapshot stays untouched. If another change happens on September 5, the active price list is replaced again, but the snapshot still stands. Only on October 1 does the next historical snapshot get added. If prices don’t change between two publication dates, the retailer isn’t required to republish the same price list.
What can shoppers demand at checkout?
The rule that matters most for everyday shopping concerns the gap between the shelf price and the price charged at the register. Perincic says shoppers actually have a broader option than most people think.
“The consumer has every right to demand that the product be sold at the price that was displayed, publicly announced, including on the shelf. So if the price at the register is different, the consumer shouldn’t just settle for returning the product because they don’t want it at the register price. They have every right to demand that it be sold to them at the announced price,” Perincic stresses.
The same applies to discounted prices. Serbia’s Trade Act requires that every reduced price be lower than the lowest price the retailer published in the previous month, which means the retained price lists will also show when a “discount” is really just a return to an earlier price that had already been raised.
Perincic doesn’t expect the measure on its own to push prices down, but she sees a different kind of value in it.
“What’s expected above all is greater transparency, and the ability for retailers to compare their prices with one another, which should improve competition between them. Specifically, I don’t believe this will lead to some drastic drop in prices,” Perincic notes.
Srpske Novine reported in late August that mandatory retailer price lists were coming on September 1, as an early notice. Now the technical details of that obligation are known: the revenue threshold, the exact list of covered goods, the data format and, most importantly for shoppers, that a price gap at the register isn’t a reason to walk away from a purchase, but grounds to demand the price seen on the shelf.
Perincic says shoppers will feel the added value mostly on larger purchases, when comparing price lists across retailers can influence which store they choose, as well as in choosing, over the long run, a retailer whose business practices toward consumers work better for them.
