The Plenary Session of the Parliament unanimously passed a law that regulates unfair commercial practices in the supply chain of agricultural products and food.
The purpose of the proposed law is to harmonize with the European Union Act entitled "Directive (EU) 2019/633 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on unfair commercial practices in business relations in the agricultural supply chain and food ".
The deadline for transposing the provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/633 into national law was set at 1 May 2021 and the deadline for implementation at 1 November 2021, however the bill under discussion was submitted to Parliament on 8 April 2021. In addition, due to untimely harmonization of the national legislation with this Directive, the European Commission has already initiated infringement proceedings against the Republic, which is at the stage of the letter of formal notice.
As AKEL MP Giannakis Gabriel stated in the Plenary Session The law prohibits 13 unfair commercial practices and AKEL considers that other similar measures should be promoted to protect farmers, such as the price auction.
DISY MP Charalambos Pazaros said that The law precisely defines what constitutes an unfair commercial practice and helps to eliminate imbalances between producers and suppliers.
ELAM MP Linos Papagiannis said that one of the biggest unfair commercial practices is the trade through occupiers which is illegal.