On Thursday (February 2), the newspaper Izvestia, citing a letter from the Ministry of Agriculture sent to the State Duma, reported that the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is ready to support food suppliers and amend the law on trade that will prohibit retail chains from collecting fines from suppliers, if they disrupted the delivery of products, in cases where the date of fulfillment of obligations was not previously agreed.
“We are not talking about a ban on networks to collect fines from suppliers for non-fulfillment of obligations under supply contracts. Penalties are proposed to be imposed only in the event of a real disruption in delivery, when the supplier confirmed the possibility of fulfilling the order, but did not fulfill it, ”the message says. The Federal Antimonopoly Service proposes to introduce into law a ban on establishing in contracts the obligation of the supplier to fulfill the order before confirming the possibility of its delivery - in the absence of such confirmation, suppliers should not be held liable for the complete or partial failure to fulfill the order.
According to the Antimonopoly Service, this will contribute to the further conflict-free development of the trade market, the restoration of the rights of suppliers to freedom of contract, and the provision of goods to consumers at the most affordable prices.
In addition, Oleg Moskvitin, Acting Director of the HSE Institute for Competition Policy and Market Regulation, said that current supply contracts contain either a condition on the obligation of suppliers to supply food products on orders from retail chains without confirming the possibility of their delivery, or the possibility of confirming an order in a short period - in within 1-4 hours. At the same time, according to manufacturers, in practice there are situations when retail chains increase the volume of orders unplanned.
“Obviously, in such a situation, when deficiencies in planning are exclusively on the side of the distribution network, and the supplier formally cannot refuse to fulfill orders, the ground for unreasonable fines against suppliers arises ... At the same time, the fine ceases to be a sanction for a real violation and a guarantee of fulfillment of obligations suppliers, but becomes an unfair burden for the latter and additional income for networks. Of course, not all retailers and not always do this, but such situations happen, and it is from them that the FAS initiative protects. In cases of a real supply disruption by suppliers, fines should be maintained, and the FAS follows a similar approach,” he concluded.