AIM, the European Brands Association, has welcomed the European Parliament Agriculture Committee’s 44 to one vote in favour of strengthening cross-border enforcement of the Unfair Trading Practices (UTP) Directive.
This overwhelming support has sent a strong and unified signal: fairness in the supply chain must be enforceable across the Single Market. We call for a swift adoption of the position in plenary.
Fast-moving consumer goods are Europe’s third-largest manufacturing sector, moving over EUR 276.1 billion worth of goods around the EU internal market each year. Our members depend on a predictable, rules-based Single Market to ensure investment, resilience, and competitive consumer choice.
The committee’s agreed text introduces a rapid alert mechanism to strengthen coordination between national authorities, mandates extra-EU buyers appoint a legally responsible person, and improves on the Commission’s proposal by aligning with the UTP Directive and the Rome I Regulation. Specifically, it confirms that overriding mandatory provisions (OMPs) adopted by Member States to safeguard public interest, including fair trading rules, must be respected in cross-border cases. This is not a new legal power, but reinforces the existing references in Dir 2019/633, a necessary step to ensure consistency and legal certainty across the EU framework.
Moreover, MEPs have rightly identified how European Retail Alliances (ERAs) exploit gaps in the current legal framework, exacerbating the imbalance in bargaining power between retailers on one side and brand manufacturers and their suppliers, including farmers, on the other. The case for action is compelling. The five largest ERAs alone account for approximately EUR 580 billion in EU retail turnover, giving them a massive economic footprint.
Operating transnationally, these alliances often engage in forum shopping, seeking jurisdictions with weaker national implementation of the Directive, and at times circumventing EU law altogether. Their dominance over access to key shelf space across multiple markets enables the systematic permeation of unfair trading practices. This entrenched power imbalance makes effective and coordinated enforcement not just necessary, but urgent.
Looking ahead, the 2026 revision of the Unfair Trading Practices (UTP) Directive must address the persistent fragmentation of existing rules.
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