On Tuesday, 12 March, the European Parliament approved the text of the new directive, which will better protect farmers against unfair commercial practices (UCPD) in the food supply chain.
The report by Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy) on this issue was adopted with 589 votes in favour, 72 against and 9 abstentions. The directive still needs to be formally approved by the EU Council before it enters into force. EU Member States will then have 24 months to introduce the new rules into national legislation. The rules will have to be applied 30 months after their entry into force.
The directive defines a list of prohibited practices, such as payment for perishable products more than 30 days after delivery (and payment for non-perishable products after 60 days), unilateral change of contract conditions by the buyer and unilateral cancellation of an order for perishable products within 30 days of agreed delivery, refusal by the buyer to confirm in writing the terms of the contract and cancellation of very short term orders.
Other practices will be subject to a conditional prohibition, such as returning unsold goods to the supplier without payment.
The new rules will protect small and medium-sized suppliers whose annual turnover does not exceed €350 million. These suppliers will be divided into five sub-categories (turnover of less than two million, 10 million, 50 million, 150 million and 350 million euros). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)