2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
Domestic food producers warn that food prices could rise by up to 8 percent if changes to the Competition Act (now known as the Chains Act) are passed at first reading.
According to the Association for Modern Trade, the changes in the law are aimed primarily at hypermarkets.
The chairman of the association in question is Yordan Mateev, who saw 5 controversial points in the law submitted for voting.
According to him, they are in the definition of significant market power, the regulation of the so-called. own brands, the approval of the general conditions in the standard contracts of the chains with the suppliers, interference in the pricing and the prohibition of disputable commercial practices.
Mateev described the submitted bill as extremely harmful, leading to increased risks for the business environment and driving away investors. He expressed direct doubts that his real goal was to expel large foreign investors from Bulgaria and replace them with local ones.
The new changes impose a ban on the so-called a logistics bonus that chains charge their suppliers for the logistics of their goods. Most chains have a centralized supply system, in which the goods are received in one warehouse and then distributed to the individual stores of the chain.
The abolition of the logistics bonus will increase the cost of products by at least 3-5 percent due to the increased delivery costs that will be borne by the chain.
The big players are also dissatisfied with the planned bans on collecting a fee for positioning goods in the checkout area, which is traditionally the most turnover, respectively the most expensive place in the store. They liken this to a ban on the sale of advertising.
One of the changes that are enshrined in the new law on protection of competition is the requirement that if a Bulgarian producer produces a product with a brand of a given variga and the same product, but with its own brand, the chain is obliged to sell both products.
Thus, the law obliges chains to increase their range, which leads to difficulties with the positioning of goods, more complex logistics and additional costs for the chains, which will eventually be calculated again in the final price of the products offered.
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