CARACAS – Venezuela’s consumer protection office said it would investigate the units of U.S.-based household products giants Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive for allegedly failing to comply with price controls.

Complaints were filed against the two U.S. companies by an unidentified “group of storekeepers,” the Indepabis consumer protection agency said in a statement.

Agency employees conducted inspections and “found that the invoices presented by the storekeepers showed that these companies increased the prices of unregulated products (sold) to distributors between 10 percent and 15 percent monthly,” Indepabis said.

Venezuela has established price controls for many consumer goods, as well as minimum production quotas.

The storekeepers alleged that Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble sold only unregulated products to obtain higher profit margins.

Indepabis regulatory enforcement chief Valentina Querales said the practice of not distributing regulated products was first detected among rice companies, which inspections revealed were not producing white rice – subject to price controls – but instead other varieties that did not fall under the controls.

An investigation will be undertaken to “verify the truthfulness of this complaint via a measurement of production levels of the different goods these companies make, as well as a review of invoices and prices at which goods are sold,” Indepabis said. EFE