Recently, the Competition Protection Agency has begun issuing announcements regarding the initiation of administrative proceedings against traders and purchasers suspected of violating the Law on Prohibition of Unfair Trading Practices (ZNTP) in their contracts. The first ‘victims’ of the AZTN’s ‘scrutiny’ are the retail chains Kaufland, NTL, Plodine, and the purchasers Koka, Žito, and PPK Valpovo, who are suspected of imposing unfair practices on suppliers. The AZTN emphasized in its announcements that administrative proceedings do not automatically mean that the law has been violated, but that certain provisions of the contracts with suppliers are unclear or disputed, which is why the proceedings were initiated.
About a month ago, the AZTN announced another piece of information, stating that since the law came into effect on April 1, it has been established that, on average, 25 percent fewer suppliers are doing business with traders than before the law was applied, which is a concerning statistic that specifically means that one in four suppliers is not on the shelves of stores. The AZTN clarified in its explanation that this data cannot be precise without specific analytical processing on an annual or multi-year basis.
