L 335/30 Official Journal of the European Communities 10.12.98 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2646/98 of 9 December 1998 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 as regards minimum standards for the treatment of tariffs in the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (Text with EEA relevance) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 of 23 October 1995 concerning harmonised indices of consumer prices ('), and in particular Articles 4 and 5(3) thereof, After consulting the European Central Bank (), Whereas, by virtue of Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95, each Member State is required to produce a Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) starting with the index for January 1997; Whereas Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 requires to ensure that the Laspeyres-type index formula is applied consistently to all sub-indices or categories of expenditure concerned; whereas their weights should reflect appropriately the pattern of expenditure by the index population; Whereas HICP sub-indices involving tariff prices are, in practice, either obtained directly from suppliers or computed by the Members States based on data on tariff prices and their underlying consumption patterns provided by suppliers; whereas there is considerable scope for procedural differences in the construction of sub- indices where changes in the structure of tariffs are made at the same time as changes are made to the tariff price of a particular element to the extent that consumers are obliged to make new choices in their consumption; whereas it is therefore important to ensure that the rel- evant basic information can be obtained as to ensure that the resulting HICPs do not fail to meet the comparability requirement of Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95; Whereas, by virtue of Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95, the basic information for the production of HICPs which should be obtained from the statistical units, consists of those prices and weights which it is necessary to take into account in order to achieve comparability; Whereas, by virtue of Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95, the statistical units called upon by the Member States to cooperate in the collection or provision of price () OJ L 257, 27. 10. 1995, p. 1. () Opinion delivered on 8 July 1998. data should be obliged to allow observation of the prices actually charged and to give honest and complete infor- mation at the time it is requested; Whereas by virtue of Article 4 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 (%), as last amended by Council Regula- tion (EC) No 1688/98 (*), the HICP should be compiled to include the price changes of a newly significant good or service; Whereas this Regulation should not require Member States to carry out new statistical surveys; Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee (SPC), HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 Aim The aim of this Regulation is to set down minimum standards for the treatment of ‘tariff prices’ in the Har- monized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). Article 2 Definitions For the purpose of this Regulation: 1. a tariff is a list of pre-established prices and condi- tions for the purchase and consumption of one and the same good or service or of similar goods and services that has been centrally fixed by the supplier, by the government, or by agreement to exert influence on the consumption patterns by means of appropriately differentiated prices and conditions according to char- acteristics of consumers, the level, the structure or the timing of the consumption. Tariffs are not negotiable for households; 2. a tariff price is a price within a tariff that applies to a component element or unit of consumption of the good or service in question. () OJ L 229, 10. 9. 1996, p. 3. ( OJ L 214, 31. 7. 1998, p. 23.