The Law on Unfair Trade Practices in the Supply Chain of Agricultural and Food Products has come into force, which is expected to further reduce product prices and permanently bring order to trade. It covers almost 2.500 products whose profit margin is limited to 10 percent, which is why it is planned to reduce their prices by 10 percent.
With the law, in addition to a limited discount, merchants will not be allowed to charge additional fees for marketing, representation, as well as for highlighting a certain product on the shelf.
Minister of Economy and Labor Besar Durmishi emphasizes that this law does not regulate the trade margin, but prohibits additional costs (fees) that suppliers had to pay for their products to be sold by buyers.
The Ministry of Economy and Labor today announced five public calls according to the Program for the Development of Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses for 2024, for which
– With the application of this law, we expect long-term results and a reduction in the prices of these products from the list up to 10%, that is, we expect the first results with reduced prices by the end of October, when we expect that stocks from previous contracts will be exhausted and they will start selling the products according to the new contracts. The law was adopted on March 20, 2024 and traders and suppliers had a period of six months to harmonize contracts, that is to say conclude new contracts, by September 27 at the latest. This means that the effective implementation of this law begins today, says Durmishi.
The competent authority to monitor the application of the law is the Commission for the Protection of Competition, which monitors the application of the provisions of this law and initiates criminal proceedings in the event of violation of a mandatory provision of the law .
Criminal proceedings are initiated ex officio or at the request of a natural or legal person having a legitimate interest in establishing the existence of an offense and must be completed within three months. Decisions on committed infringements are published on the website of the Commission for the Protection of Competition. Depending on the seriousness and significance of the offense, the law provides sanctions for the most serious offenses and minor offenses.
The highest fine amount for the most serious offense can be up to 20.000 euros for a large trader and from 350 euros to 5.000 euros for the head of the legal entity that is a large trader. Sanctions for minor offenses vary depending on whether the offense was committed by a legal entity or a natural person. The highest amount of the misdemeanor fine that can be imposed in proceedings is 6.000 to 350 euros for a large trader and 500 to 500 euros for the person responsible for the legal entity that is a great trader.
The decisions of the Commission for the Protection of Competition are final. A legal action may be taken against them to initiate an administrative dispute before a competent court. The legal action for the initiation of an administrative dispute is filed within 30 days from the day of receipt of the decision and does not delay the execution of the decision.
Late last night, the government adopted a decision to freeze the prices of basic products: bread, salt, olive oil, milk and dairy products, eggs, flour, meat, pasta, medicines and disinfectants.
Minister Durmishi, however, emphasizes that in the next three months, if it turns out that the provisions of the law were not respected when concluding new contracts, there will be warnings, i.e. say that there will be no immediate sanction. Until the end of 2024, it will cooperate with companies to determine whether contracts have been concluded correctly, i.e. whether the provisions of the law have been sufficiently respected.
In the meantime, the government’s decision to limit the margin to 10% in the wholesale and retail trade of 73 basic food products continues to be implemented, in order to protect citizens from price shocks until the first results of the Unfair Trade Practices Act.
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