The Unfair Trading Practices Enforcement Authority is up and running, with powers to investigate and sanction breaches of the trading regulations in the agri-food sector, with fines up to €500,000 per breach.
At present a function of the Department of Agriculture & Food, the responsibilities of the authority will be transferred to a new Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain once a Bill agreed by government last March has been passed into law.
In the meantime, the Authority will continue to enforce the existing regulations, which ban 16 unfair trading practices. These are aimed at suppliers of agricultural or food products to a larger buyer, at any stage in the supply chain, with the object of protecting weaker suppliers from unfair trading practices by stronger buyers.
Among the banned practices are:
- Paying later than 30 days for perishable agricultural and food products
- Paying later than 60 days for other agricultural and food products
- Short-notice cancellations of perishable agricultural and food products
- Unilateral contract changes by the buyer
- Payment not related to a specific transaction
- Risk of loss and deterioration transferred to the supplier
- Refusal of written confirmation of a supply agreement by the buyer, despite request of the supplier
- Misuse of trade secrets by the buyer
- Commercial retaliation by the buyer
- Transferring the costs of examining customer complaints to the supplier.
Six other practices are banned unless the supplier and buyer agree in advance to apply them. These are:
In Association with
- Buyer returning unsold products to the supplier without paying for those unsold products
- Payment by the supplier for stocking, display and listing
- Payment by the supplier for promotion
- Payment by the supplier for marketing
- Payment by the supplier for advertising
- Payment by the supplier for staff of the buyer, fitting out premises.
The Unfair Trading Practices Enforcement Authority has the power to:
- Conduct investigations following receipt of complaint or on its own initiative.
- Require buyers and suppliers to provide all necessary information
- Carry out unannounced on-site inspections
- Take decisions if infringement found, and require the buyer to bring prohibited trading practice to an end (compliance notice)
- Initiate proceedings for the imposition of fines
- Publish decisions following investigation.
Authorised officers of the authority will examine and investigate complaints about traders and businesses trading unfairly and if the regulations have been breached, the Authority’s powers range from issuing formal compliance notices, to initiating court proceedings.
If the matter goes to court and a trader is convicted, the court may issue a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both for a summary conviction. In the most serious cases, a fine of up to €500,000 and/or a prison sentence of up to three years may be imposed.
The Authority stresses that if a business buys agriculture or food products, it is its legal obligation to ensure that its supply agreements are not breaking the law.
The Enforcement Authority’s website provides further information for suppliers on the UTP Regulations, including a quick guide for suppliers here, and full details on how to make a complaint, along with a useful series of FAQs.
There’s also an overview of the regulations and a video.
