The EU will soon have more effective tools to tackle unfair trading practices (UTPs) in the agri-food chain, and to prevent the weaker bargaining position of small and medium-sized farmers from being exploited by larger operators, such as major processors and retailers according to the press release of Council of the EU.
The Council adopted on 9th of April a directive on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain. The directive will ban the most obvious unfair trading practices and provide member states with more effective ways of tackling abuses.
Within the agricultural and food supply chain, significant imbalances in bargaining power between suppliers and buyers of agricultural and food products are a common occurrence. Those imbalances in bargaining power are likely to lead to unfair trading practices when larger and more powerful trading partners seek to impose certain practices or contractual arrangements which are to their advantage in relation to a sales transaction.
The new rules will cover micro enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-range enterprises that have an annual turnover lower than EUR 350 million. In order to do that, the directive adopts a dynamic approach, according to which smaller operators are only protected against unfair trading practices in cases where these originate from larger businesses.
This means for instance that micro enterprises will be protected against SME buyers and small and medium-sized suppliers will be protected against mid-range buyers and buyers larger than that.
The objective is threefold: to protect only those who really need it, to safeguard the smallest suppliers, but also to prevent that costs caused by abuses of medium-sized operators are being passed on to primary producers.
Unfair trading practices such as late payments for perishable products, last minute order cancellations, unilateral or retroactive changes to supply agreements, the misuse of confidential information, and the retaliation or threat of retaliation against the supplier will be completely banned, while other practices will only be permitted if they are provided for in a clear and unambiguous previous agreement between the parties.
Examples are: a buyer returning unsold food products to a supplier, a supplier paying for the promotion or the marketing of food products sold by the buyer, and costs for stocking, displaying or listing agri-food products.
Member states will have twenty-four months after the entry into force of the directive to transpose it into national law, and six more months to apply its provisions.
For further information: Directive of the European parliament and of the Council on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain