EU starts infringement proceedings for failure to transpose rules on unfair trade
In a statement, the EU executive announced that it has opened "infringement proceedings against 12 member states for failure to transpose EU rules prohibiting unfair commercial practices."
The European Commission on Tuesday launched infringement proceedings against Portugal and 11 other member states for failing to transpose European Union (EU) rules prohibiting unfair trading practices between companies in the agricultural and food supply chain.
In a statement, the EU executive announced that it has opened “infringement proceedings against 12 member states for failure to transpose EU rules prohibiting unfair commercial practices.”
At issue is the European directive prohibiting unfair commercial practices in business-to-business relations in the agricultural and food supply chain, adopted in April 2019 and which should have been transposed into each country’s national legislation by May 2021.
“The Commission has sent letters of formal notice to require compliance to Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain, asking them to adopt and notify the necessary measures,” the institution specifies in the press information.
Portugal and the other 11 EU countries now have two months to respond to Brussels’ warning.
The EU executive maintains that this new law “ensures the protection of all European farmers, as well as small and medium-sized suppliers, against 16 unfair commercial practices of large buyers in the food supply chain”.
And recalls that this EU legislation “covers agricultural and food products traded in the supply chain, prohibiting for the first time at EU level such unfair practices imposed unilaterally by one trading partner on another”.
Already 15 other countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden – have indicated to the Commission that they have taken all necessary measures to transpose the Directive, thus declaring the process complete.
Of the 12 countries now notified, France and Estonia have indicated that they have only partially transposed the new EU rules, which is why they have also been included in the infringement procedure.
Among the unfair practices banned by this law are issues such as late payments and cancellation of last-minute orders for perishable food products, unilateral or retroactive changes to contracts, forcing the supplier to pay for wasted products and refusing written contracts.
It is envisaged that farmers and small and medium-sized suppliers and organisations representing them will have the possibility to lodge complaints against such practices by their buyers.
To this end, member states must set up national authorities which will handle complaints, while also ensuring the confidentiality of complainants.
“The Commission has also taken measures to increase market transparency and promote the cooperation of producers. Taken together, these measures will ensure a more balanced, fair and efficient supply chain in the agri-food sector,” Brussels concludes.
