EU wants your view on unfair trading practices

The consultation looks at the following stages of the chain:

• primary production
• processing
• distributing
• wholesale trade
• retail

The purpose of this questionnaire is to better understand the extent to which such potential unfair trading practices (UTP's) actually occur in the food supply chain, and what would be the costs these have to the supply chain.

Unfair trading practises can be defined as practices that grossly deviate from good commercial conduct and are contrary to principles of good faith and fair dealing. This has previously been identified as:

1. no payment periods longer than 30 days for perishable products
2. no unilateral and retroactive changes to contracts (concerning volumes, quality standards and prices)
3. no contributions to promotional or marketing costs;
4. no claims for wasted or unsold products
5. no last-minute order cancellations concerning perishable products;
6. no requests for upfront payments to secure or retain contracts.

The NFU will be will submitting a full response, but the EU Commission are keen to hear from private businesses and producers.