Diederik Schrijvershof assisted GroentenFruit huis ("GFH") in submitting feedback in the context of a consultation organized by the European Commission (the "Commission"). The Commission published draft guidelines on the application of article 210a CMO Regulation 1308/2013 (the "CMO") and invited stakeholders to comment on these guidelines.
GFH is a trade association of trading companies and producer organizations engaged in the sales of fruits and vegetables. The members of GFH specialize in cooperative selling, domestic wholesale, import, export, cutting and handling, processing, packing, storage and transhipment of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Article 210a CMO provides that agreements within the agri-food and retail sector that pursue a sustainability standard do not fall under the cartel prohibition. This allows private parties to enter into sustainability agreements that include compensation to farmers for the higher costs to achieve a (more) permanent shift to sustainability. However, the current draft guidelines will unnecessarily limit the scope provided by article 210a CMO. In particular, the draft guidelines seem to reintroduce elements from article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ("TFEU") (e.g. consumers' willingness to pay a higher price), while article 210a CMO explicitly provides for a deviation from article 101 TFEU.
For more information about the impact of article 210a CMO? Read this and this blog.
Maverick Advocaten previously assisted GFH in drafting a response in the context of a Commission consultation on the CMO amendment.
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