You can’t say the mass because of the Descrozaille bill. “We are not necessarily completely at the end of the race,” explains Boris Ruy, Fidal’s associate managing attorney, as the government can still “come up with a certain number of amendments” before the vote, which is scheduled for Wednesday. The government is said to have expressed “a number of reservations” about the bill after its approval by deputies and senators in the Joint Joint Committee last week.
The intervention of the Executive would be the ideal scenario for the distributors, who are fiercely opposed to a bill that they consider “irresponsible” and “inflationary.” This is, above all, Article 3, which allows a supplier to purely and simply break a commercial relationship in the event of a disagreement on price. “It’s unconstitutional,” strikes down an official from the sector, who also denounces the extension to hygiene and beauty products of the ceiling of promotions at 34%. He wants, at a minimum, a compromise on the promotion cap.
“We have to find something that is applicable, why not at 50%, that would be better”, he explains. He also hopes that there will be “an application deadline, for example for the next school year”, when the annual negotiations have just finished and the contracts have just been signed.
A sanction from Brussels?
In their fight, the French distributors have received in recent days the support of EuroCommerce, the European Federation of the sector, which also points to article 1 of the bill, on purchasing centers located abroad. It is written that with regard to “any agreement between a supplier and a buyer concerning products or services marketed in French territory” (…) “any dispute [portant sur leur application] falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of the French courts, subject to compliance with European Union law and international treaties ratified or approved by France and without prejudice to the recourse to arbitration.
In the eyes of Christel Delberghe, Director General of EuroCommerce, “the first part of this article is in total contradiction with the internal market, which allows companies to benefit from economies of scale, to the benefit of consumers.” She believes that it is “irresponsible to prevent distributors from playing their bargaining role for the benefit of the consumer,” especially in this period of high inflation. She is concerned, more broadly, about the accumulation of regulations on large distribution, in France, and a “protectionism that is in the process, according to her, of impoverishing a sector that creates enormous jobs and that needs to be transformed.”
In fact, this article 1 is not going to change much, tempers the lawyer Boris Ruy, specialized in advice and litigation in the field of competition and distribution. The text, he recalls, says that “Any dispute (…) is the exclusive jurisdiction of the French courts, subject to compliance with European Union law and international treaties ratified or approved by France and without prejudice to the recourse to arbitration “. Clearly: the Descrozaille law “comes to put a safeguard”, but “it cannot derogate the principles of the European Union” and “we will continue, according to him, seeing agreements subject to foreign law”.
promotions limit
On the other hand, always according to this expert, the limitation of promotions to 34%, extended to hygiene and beauty products, could pose a problem at a European level, since promotions are governed by a European directive dating from 2005. There could also be a “conformity problem” on the threshold of reselling at a loss, after the European Court ruled in recent years that the Spanish and Belgian PRS did not comply with European Union law.
“At some point, the European Commission will end up telling (France) that it is going against a series of regulations,” says a retail manager, for whom “Brussels is beginning to realize that it is a lot” and could “ask for an explanation “. .” A comment that sounds like a pressure shot on the executive before the vote on the bill.
Source: BFM TV
