Question 11092 — agri-food

Summary

Ms. Anne-Sophie Ronceret draws the attention of the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises, Commerce, Crafts, Tourism and Purchasing Power to the proposed modification of the guidelines of the General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Repression (DGCCRF) relating to the logistics penalties provided for in Article L. 441-17 of the Commercial Code. Since the adoption of the laws “Egalim 2” and “ Descrozaille” and the publication in 2023 of the DGCCRF guidelines, abusive logistics penalties have clearly declined and the situation has generally stabilized for manufacturers and distributors. Professional organizations in the sector emphasize that these guidelines have contributed to better regulating practices by reminding that penalties are not intended to constitute an automatic resource. but compensation for real damage that the distributor must be able to demonstrate. The draft revision of the guidelines currently subject to consultation is, however, perceived by many economic players as a significant reversal of doctrine. It would tend to assimilate penalties to a quasi-automatic right of the distributor, including on the basis of expired agreements, which raises questions with regard to the principles of law bonds. It would also weaken the scope of the one-year limitation period provided for by law by modifying the assessment of the starting point and would call into question the requirement to demonstrate harm on a case-by-case basis, which is at the heart of the legislator's will. In a context of already very tense commercial negotiations marked by the multiplication of purchasing centers and strong pressure on the margins of retail companies, agri-food, these developments raise serious concerns about the risk of a resurgence of bad practices in terms of logistical penalties and destabilization of commercial relations. The MP therefore wishes to know, on the one hand, how the Government intends to guarantee that the future guidelines of the DGCCRF will remain strictly in conformity with the spirit of the laws passed by Parliament, in particular on the obligation to demonstrate real damage in order to apply penalties and, on the other hand, what measures it intends to take to ensure that this revision will lead neither to a weakening of supplier protection nor to a new drift in logistics penalties in large-scale distribution.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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