Government has passed a law to delay retailers from immediately slashing prices on newly imported goods -- despite admitting it could harm the fashion industry.

The clause, which is part of the Consumer Affairs Act, is aimed at stopping business from fooling customers by inflating the original price and then slashing it to what it should have been in the first place.

Under the clause, shops would be banned from dropping prices within the first 28 days of an item reaching the Island.

However, retailers have blasted it as unworkable.

Lawrence Trimingham, general manager of Trimingham Bros., explained: "In fashion stores the cycle is often 28 days. You don't want to wait 28 days to mark it down if you find it's not selling.'' Consumer Affairs Officer Karen Marshall admitted the law created huge problems for the fashion industry.

She said: "We understand that with the fashion industry the 28-days rule would kill it. Items only have a life span of eight weeks and we understand that.

"They know within two weekends whether something is going to sell. But the way the Act reads they would not be able to reduce the item within 28 days.

"Whether it will be changed later, I don't know.

"A lot of retailers are for this plan.'' She said some retailers put items straight on the shelf with the sale price.

"They are duping the customer into thinking they are getting a deal,'' Ms Marshall claimed.

However, she refused to say which industries were to blame. But retail experts said the practice was particularly noticeable in the jewellery industry.

Ms Marshall said: "We get a lot of calls from tourists about this problem.

Last year there were 103 complaints from tourists about inflated prices.

"But if that (28-day notice) decision hurts the fashion industry, we would have to rethink further down the line.

"Unfortunately this problem wasn't picked up earlier by the Chamber of Commerce when we consulted them. We wouldn't want to cause retailers problems -- they are struggling as it is.

"The key thing is that this is something they have in a lot of other countries. It's standard because of this problem (of duping customers). It's been considered by a lot of consumer protection departments.'' But Mr. Trimingham denied this. He said: "They don't have this in the US. We could lose customers and put jobs at stake.'' Mr. Trimingham, who also sits on the executive committee of the Chamber of Commerce's Retail Division, said: "It's completely unworkable for a number of reasons. If an item isn't selling, then a retailer will mark it down and the consumer benefits.'' He said the law, passed by the Senate yesterday, was a heavy-handed way of dealing with a few retailers who were conning their customers and he pointed out there were innocent reasons for marking down goods.

"Bermudians are very smart and they won't shop where they are getting ripped off,'' Mr. Trimingham said.

He pointed out that wrong deliveries were sometimes sent so the supplier would cut a deal rather than pay for it to be shipped back.

And he said firms sometimes made too many of an item and then sold it cheaply to stores.

Mr. Trimingham wondered how the policy would be enforced.

Ms Marshall said they had sufficient staff for the new policy.

But she added: "It has to be something very blatant. I don't want people thinking this is a witchhunt.'' GOVERNMENT GVT