The Senate begins Wednesday the examination in first reading of a bill modifying on an experimental basis the commercial relations between suppliers and distributors (AFP / Bertrand GUAY)
The Senate adopted Wednesday at first reading, with adjustments, the bill of the deputy Renaissance Frédéric Descrozaille which modifies on an experimental basis the commercial relations between suppliers and distributors, by finally preserving the extension of the framework of the threshold of sale at a loss .
Deputies and senators will now try to agree on a common version of the text.
“It is not a question of turning distributors against industrialists or the reverse”, underlined at the opening of the debates the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, castigating on this subject “comments which pour too easily into the caricature”.
The LR president of the Economic Affairs Committee Sophie Primas regretted that this text was submitted to the Senate at “a very bad time”, just two weeks before the end of the round of annual negotiations scheduled from December 1 to March 1 for products of high consumption.
Criticized by the big brands, it had given rise in January to ten days of media confrontations, with in particular Michel Edouard-Leclerc, before its adoption by the deputies, unanimously by the voters.
The text of the deputy Descrozaille modifies on an experimental basis the balance of power between the suppliers and industrialists of the food industry, and the large distribution, considered to be too favorable to the latter.
It aims to fill the “legal vagueness” in the event of failure of negotiations on March 1, which does not interrupt the contract and in fact benefits the buyer since the latter can continue for several months to order products from the supplier. , which he pays at the old rate.
It thus creates an additional period of one month to allow mediation aiming either to conclude an agreement or to define the terms of a notice of commercial termination.
The senators “framed” the device, providing in particular that the price applicable during the one-month break notice must take into account “the economic situation of the market” (inflation, average increases accepted by competitors, etc.).
– “Pressure on distributors” –
The bill also intends to extend until 2026 the experiment on the supervision of the threshold for sales at a loss and promotions, which expires in April.
Regarding the resale at a loss threshold, the commission initially wanted to suspend the measure for two years.
A divisive proposal which was ultimately not retained, since the rapporteur Anne-Catherine Loisier (centrist) herself defended in the hemicycle an amendment restoring the extension (until 2025), but excluding, against the government notice, fresh fruits and vegetables of its application.
This provision, known as SRP+10, adopted as part of the Egalim 1 law intended to protect farmers’ income, obliges supermarkets to sell food products at least 10% more expensive than the price at which they bought them.
“We wanted to put pressure on the distributors”, justified the rapporteur. “We had to ask the debate”, supported Daniel Gremillet (LR).
“Suspending this provision for two years would be tantamount to burying it”, with “a risk of relaunching the price war”, estimated Mr. Fesneau. The FNSEA had shouted “provocation”.
The consumer association UFC-Que Choisir calls for its “immediate abolition”, to lighten the weight of inflation.
Another initiative of the senators to which the government is opposed: the extension to all consumer products, in particular hygiene and cleaning products, of the supervision of promotions on food products which aimed in particular to put an end to “1 product purchased, 1 product offered” operations.
The Senate has further extended the scope of the non-negotiability of agricultural raw materials to products sold under private label (MDD). “A major step forward” for Olivier Rietmann.
The majority communist and ecologist CRCE groups abstained on this text. “It marks a small step, but clearly we are working on the margins, in every sense of the word,” said environmentalist Daniel Salmon.