“The bill proposed is intended to eliminate unfair commercial practices from the agricultural raw materials and foodstuff supply chain. This area of commercial activity is directly linked to a country’s nutritional safety, which means that there is a social dimension as well.” This is a quote that opens the statement of reasons for a proposal for an Act on Combating Unfair Use of Contractual Advantage in Trade in Food and Agricultural Products, which has just been submitted to the Sejm.

Work on this bill – important not only from the point of view of the food and agricultural products sector – initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture – has now thus reached an advanced legislative stage.

The main focus of the bill is banning unfair use of contractual advantage. This concerns contractual relationships between suppliers and buyers of agricultural or food products, which is decisive in determining the sectoral nature of regulations. At the same time, the bill proposes a turnover threshold below which the act will not apply.

Powers with regard to enforcement of the ban on unfair use of contractual advantage will pass to the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. In the same way, the bill adapts legal instruments which are administrative in nature, already known in the currently binding Act of 16 February 2007 on Competition and Consumer Protection (text: ISAP).