Proposed Regulation on cross-border enforcement of Unfair Trading Practices in the food supply chain

EuroCommerce supports better enforcement against unfair trading practices, but the co-legislators must ensure there are safeguards to preserve the Single Market for sourcing and legal certainty.

We call on the co-legislators to:

• Keep the proposed Regulation focused on cooperation between enforcement authorities based on the existing unfair trading practices and thresholds in Directive (EU) 2019/633 (‘UTP Directive’).
• Ensure enforcement authorities can refuse requests to cooperate or exchange information on national rules that go beyond the UTP Directive – especially since some of those rules may be incompatible with the Single Market.
• Not amend the UTP Directive or add new rules in the proposed Regulation ahead of the results of the evaluation of the UTP Directive.
• Not permit stricter national laws or interpretations of national unfair trading practices rules outside their jurisdiction. Upholding the choice of law and jurisdiction in contracts is critical to preserve the Single Market for sourcing and the benefits consumers derive from it – like wider choice and more affordable prices.