Panama's New Law Requires All Businesses To Display The Full Price -

(MENAFN- Newsroom Panama) Thursday June 19 of 2025 a law was published in the Official Gazette requiring businesses to display the actual price of a product, including taxes and other charges, on shelves and at the point of sale. This is Law 473, which amends Law 45 of 2007, which establishes regulations on consumer protection and competition defense.“What we've achieved with this new law is that all articles, all goods and services that consumers exchange directly with economic agents will now have to include their corresponding national taxes and fees. We've established a marked price, a price paid, and a price invoiced,” Augusto Palacios explained.“The idea is that when you go to a store, the price on the shelf, that is, on the label, will be the final price,” he added. The initiative was originally proposed as a draft bill presented in January 2025 by Representative Augusto Palacios who is pictured below.

According to the representative, one of the objectives is to minimize tax evasion, which the Minister of Economy and Finance, Felipe Chapman, has estimated at more than $1 billion annually in ITBMS alone. I am sure that you have heard the expression that there would be a 7% discount if you paid in cash.“This is a way for us to minimize tax evasion, and also to strengthen consumer transparency, because let's remember that we are a service-oriented country, and many foreigners come to our country to buy items, goods, and services. What we want is complete transparency in their purchases. When a customer comes here, whether domestic or foreign, and goes to a restaurant, they know what they're looking at on the menu is the price they pay, and all taxes and fees are automatically included,” the representative emphasized.

Transition

How long will businesses have to adjust to the change? First, the law must be regulated by the Executive Branch, which, according to the document published in the Official Gazette, will have four months to do so. “They have four months to carry it out, and as for its enactment, we've given it a year of 'vacatio legis' meaning that within a year the law must be implemented, materialized, or put into effect so that prices are properly posted in stores,” Palacios explained.“Something very important that merchants need to know is that they won't have to incur a change to the system, a change to their billing system itself. It's only the internal education they'll have to provide to their consumers, to the business as a whole. And we want good education to be provided nationwide because the last thing we want right now is to negatively impact the commercial agent,” he stated.

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