Skip to content

News -

General information

  • EuroCommerce reminds that restricting access to the Single Market will not improve the situation for farmers.
    The association clarifies the fact that “European retail alliances mostly deal with large international suppliers of processed products, which tend to hold strong market positions in their product categories. These global suppliers continue to make significant margins and benefit from the Single Market for their own sourcing and production.

    EuroCommerce, Press release of 8 February 2024

  • EuroCommerce urged the European Commission to take action against French rules on B2B commercial relations and lodged a formal complaint against French ‘Descrozaille’ law.
    This prevents retailers and wholesalers […] from benefiting from economies of scale in the Single Market and deprives consumers of the benefits that pan-European sourcing brings in the form of a broader selection of goods at more affordable prices.”

    EuroCommerce, Press release of 14 December 2023

  • The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre reported on retail alliances and their impact on the food supply chain in 2020. It concluded that there is an overall agreement that Retail Alliances are able to generate benefits for retailers that increase their competitiveness in a competitive, consolidating and internationalizing market, and that at least part of the benefits generated by Retail Alliances are likely passed on to consumers where there is sufficient downstream competition.

    Joint Research Centre, Retail alliances in the agricultural and food supply chain (2020)

  • The Belgian Competition Authority published a report on recent trends in FMCG prices in Belgium, in comparison with the Netherlands, France and Germany.
    It identifies that territorial supply constraints(i.e. multinational firms supplying identical or very similar products at different prices to retailers across countries, typically in the disadvantage of relatively small countries like Belgium) remain an important topic to keep on the (Belgian and EU) policy agenda”.

    Belgian Competition Authority, Press Release 4/2024 of 25 January 2024

  • The Dutch Government also published in 2023 a study on territorial supply constraints and their consequences for consumers.
    It is recognised that Retailers in Netherlands see it as a business solution to buy through a joint purchasing organization.

    Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate of Netherlands, Territorial supply restrictions (2023)

  • The comparison of EBITDA ratio shows that large manufacturers enjoy a profitability that is 3 times higher than that of European food retailers (~22.2% vs. 6.3%).

    McKinsey & EuroCommerce, The State of Grocery Retail – 2023 – Europe | section 3

Contacts

Related content

  • EURELEC welcomes the ruling by the Court of Appeal of Brussels in favour of EU law primacy

    EURELEC welcomes the judgement of the Court of Appeal of Brussels of 19 February 2024, acknowledging that only Belgian law applies to EURELEC. This is a positive signal for upholding EU law and the EU internal market and therewith for European consumers who are the main beneficiaries of a well-functioning internal market.
    EURELEC welcomes in particular the recognition given by the Court of App