New rules on cross-border enforcement against unfair trading practices

Key points

The EESC:

• supports strengthening cooperation between national authorities within the internal market and the spirit of open dialogue between the various players in the food supply chain that has prevailed over the last few months and would like to see this continue within the recently created European Board on Agriculture and Food (EBAF);
• notes the extent to which seeking better communication, coordination and cooperation among national authorities is essential to provide complainants with better support for when they lodge complaints. In this context, the EESC once again highlights the crucial role played by interpreters and translators. Language is still a major obstacle that restricts access to procedures;
• welcomes the Commission’s decision to swiftly start incorporating the recommendations of the Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU agriculture into the legislative process;
• understands why there is no impact assessment given that the proposed regulation in question only aims to clarify the arrangements for cooperation between national authorities that were already laid down in the Unfair Trading Practices Directive (UTP);
• asks the co-legislators to ensure that the proposed regulation remains a legislative act that seeks only to specify administrative and procedural measures and that businesses which operate in the internal market benefit from legal certainty and remain free to choose the law and jurisdiction applicable to their contracts, while still complying with competition law;
• calls for the measures in the regulation to apply only to cooperation between the authorities responsible for enforcing the legislation on unfair trading practices and the thresholds harmonised at EU level under Articles 3 and 4 of the UTP Directive;
• urges the co-legislators to ensure that the enforcement authorities have an absolute right to refuse requests for the exchange of information on national rules that are not harmonised by the UTP Directive and to avoid proposing measures that could lead to renationalising supply in Europe and that could in this regard legitimise regional supply constraints that have serious consequences for consumers and for product sustainability.