[ad_1]
Due to the difficult situation related to the purchase of soft fruit (very low purchase price, not even covering the cost of harvesting fruit), the government decided to amend the law on the elimination of unfair commercial practices in agri-food products
. it came into force on July 12 of the previous year, but due, among other things, high thresholds on the business figure of the farmer himself and buyers, he s & # 39; It turned out that the interested parties used it very little. This week, the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers adopted its amendment to abolish quotas limiting the possibility of a review by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) of a possible contractual advantage against farmers. and producers of meat, vegetables and fruits have been complaining for years about the use of their contractual benefits, particularly by large retail chains and processing plants, and complaints to UOKiK do not great thing to these practices. For example, distribution chains continually impose and charge suppliers on many additional costs such as: for display and sale, for advertising, for the sale of products in individual outlets or for the financing of promotions or the opening of a new point of sale. Retail chains generally required food manufacturers to contract for the supply of products without the ability to negotiate their content, including the date of payment. Often, there were also practices of unilateral termination of contracts by distribution chains, or longer payment terms for goods delivered, and during protests from suppliers, they abandoned their services. Fruit and vegetable processing plants have often dictated to their producers purchase prices so low that they do not just cover production costs or even harvesting costs (unfortunately this year is particularly unfavorable). to farmers in this regard). 19659003] The law introduced a year ago ordered UOKiK to bring an action in the Office as well as following a written application by a supplier who considers that traders and processing plants use unfair practices. The penalty applied by UOKiK could reach up to 3% of the fiscal year business turnover before the year of imposition of the fine and could be applied even if the entrepreneur violated, even inadvertently, prohibiting the misuse of the contractual benefit. As I have already mentioned, the provisions of this law could apply to these entities, when the total value of the business turnover (in the year of opening of the procedure) between suppliers and buyers exceeds 50 000. PLN in the year and the business turnover of the supplier or the buyer (in the year preceding the procedure), which used the contractual advantage, exceeded the amount of 100 million PLN. In this situation, despite the many onerous conditions imposed on farmers by both traders and processors, UOKiK could not use this law to prove the existence of a contractual advantage. The amendment, as I have already mentioned, is to remove these financial thresholds and therefore, in principle, any farmer who sells his products for trade or processing may ask UOKiK to check that they are safe. it does not use the contractual benefit. The amendment to the law will be adopted by the Sejm in September and can therefore be used by the OCCP this fall in the interest of farmers and consumers.
[ad_2]
Source link
