Centromarca – the Portuguese Association of Branded Product Companies – welcomes the Government's statement reflecting the Council of Ministers' approval of the decree-law that amends the legal framework applicable to Individual Restrictive Trade Practices (IRTP), with the aim of ensuring transparency in commercial relations and a balance of negotiating positions between economic operators.
Although the final text is not yet known, the changes introduced to the legislation will follow the suggestions resulting from the evaluation of the current Decree-Law 166/2013 carried out in 2017, as well as some of the concerns and proposals presented by Centromarca over the past year.
Some of these changes will relate to a fundamental aspect for the effective implementation of the legislation: providing the competent authority – ASAE – with the human, technical and legislative resources necessary for its actions, with particular emphasis on strengthening the interaction with the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) in its intervention with economic operators.
More substantially, Nuno Fernandes Thomaz, President of Centromarca, highlights the concrete expansion of the list of abusive commercial practices, as well as, it is hoped, the introduction of practical rules aimed at preventing their use. "Although less frequent today than in previous years, situations such as the issuance of unilateral debits still occur, constituting an aberrant and pernicious practice in this area of business, considered by Centromarca as the most relevant issue and which I hope has been included in this revision of the legislation," argues Nuno Fernandes Thomaz.
Lastly, but no less importantly, it should also be emphasized:
- The establishment of a confidentiality protection scheme for potential whistleblowers of restrictive business practices, extending to business associations when they act on behalf of their members;
- A more accurate definition of acceptable discounts and payment methods for calculating sales at a loss will allow for better fluidity in the relationship between suppliers and retailers.
- The extension of the prohibition of a set of abusive practices beyond the agri-food sector, albeit only covering micro and small enterprises. This extension aligns with one of the findings that Centromarca has always mentioned: that these abusive practices and their impact on economic operators are neither exclusive to nor particularly more burdensome in the agri-food sector compared to other sectors of so-called mass consumption.
Centromarca hopes that this revision of the legislation will lead to more attentive action on this important sector, more effective monitoring and oversight of the market by the competent authorities, which, when necessary, should result in simpler and more efficient procedural instructions.
