Zprava Komise o stavu provadeni zakazu nekalych obchodnich praktik

Commission report on the state of implementation of the prohibition of unfair trading practices

EU Directive 2019/633 on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain ("the Directive") of 2019 was transposed into Czech law by a major amendment to Act No. 395/2009 Coll., on significant market power and unfair trading practices in the sale of agricultural and food products ("the Act") with effect from 1 January 2023.

The amendment to the Act brought a number of important changes for the entire agri-food sector. In particular, it expanded the personal and substantive scope of the Act, clarified and expanded the definition of significant market power and defined a list of so-called unfair practices of buyers with significant market power. We have discussed the background and impact of this legislation in more detail in previous months, e.g. HERE, HERE or HERE.

In April, the European Commission published a report assessing the state of implementation of the Directive in all EU Member States. The report shows that the vast majority of Member States have adopted a higher level of protection than the minimum level set by the Directive. For example, some Member States have not adopted the turnover criteria set by the Directive or have extended the list of unfair commercial practices beyond the Directive. By the end of 2022, all Member States had transposed the Directive into national law.

Enforcement authorities have also been designated in all Member States. In the Czech Republic, compliance with the Act is supervised by the Office for the Protection of Competition, which has been initiating administrative proceedings against entities that violate the requirements set out in the Act since January 2024.

In order to assess the effectiveness of the measures taken by the Member States, the Commission should carry out an evaluation of the Directive at EU level at the end of 2025. For the purpose of this evaluation, annual surveys are carried out in all EU Member States. The full text of the report is available HERE.

If you would like more detailed information, please do not hesitate to contact the authors of the article or other members of the EY team with whom you usually work.

Authors:

Jan Turek

Johanna Roháčková