Brussels, 30/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission unveiled a European strategy aiming to identify and remove obstacles to the correct functioning of the retail sector, which represents 11% of European GDP, accounts for 29% of SMEs and employs 33 million people.
The action plan lists 5 priorities: - better informing consumers, allowing them to compare prices properly, particularly in electronics, and to assess the environmental impact of their purchases; - improving access to retail services by promoting an exchange of best practice between member states, for example in town planning matters; - promoting fairer and more sustainable commercial relations for the entire length of the supply chain by means of a specific public consultation and actions aiming to reduce waste; - improving the link between the retail sector and innovation, for example, by creating a European database on national food labels; - promoting a better professional environment, notably by developing tools to harmonise labour supply and demand. The Commission will set up an expert group tasked with looking into ways of boosting competitiveness in the sector.
Unfair commercial practices. In publishing a Green Paper, the European institution has launched a public consultation to run until Tuesday 30 April, with the aim of finding out more about unfair commercial practices in “B2B” relationships. Practices of this kind exist when one party to a contract deliberately hides information from the other, which then generally finds itself in a position of weakness, or unilaterally imposes changes to their commercial relationship. The consultation will be used to assess whether national measures to fight these unfair practices lead to a fragmentation of the internal market. If this is the case, the Commission may announce legislative initiatives in mid-2013. (MB/transl.fl)