Competition Council pampers hypermarkets

Following Declaration 88 of the European Parliament which asked for measures to prevent the establishment of a monopoly of hypermarkets in relation to clients and suppliers, CC in Romania initiated, in its turn, its own investigation in the retail sector. Yet, the issue seems to be buried. CC investigation started in 2008 and it was scheduled to complete in 2009, but it extends at least until the fourth quarter of 2009.

Thus, the suspicions of employers and unions in the agri-food industry are fed, based on the hypothesis that political pressures are put on officials not to upset hypermarkets and not to adopt the ‘Good Practice Code.' The code is an agreement between suppliers and hypermarkets which had to become law and it reduces he market dominant position of hypermarkets, particularly by phasing out taxes and contract conditions by which they were ruining suppliers, such as the charge for opening a new store, the charge for packages for promotions, pre-paid discounts.