• The President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny initiated proceedings against Kaufland Polska Markety.
• The company may unfairly exploit its contractual advantage with respect to suppliers of agri-food products.
• The allegations involve establishing terms of cooperation during its course and requiring additional discounts, which have not been specified in the contracts.

The proceedings were initiated following the investigation into the discount policies of 19 retail chains. The collected material gave grounds to accuse Kaufland Polska Markety of unfair exploitation of contractual advantage.

The President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny challenged two types of practices of the entrepreneur. The first one consisted in establishing the terms of cooperation with certain suppliers of agri-food products following the beginning of a given year. In the event contract negotiations for the following year are prolonged or were initiated late, the supplier does not know on what terms it is supplying products in the period between the beginning of the year and the date of signing the contract. In many cases, the existing discounts are increased or additional discounts are added to a new contract and suppliers are obliged to pay Kaufland Polska Markety compensation on this account. In practice, this means retroactively reducing the price already paid for the sale of products to that chain.

Additionally, Kaufland Polska Markety charges some agri-food suppliers an additional discount, which has not been provided for in the contract. Therefore, a retailer's contractor does not know when it will be asked to provide such a discount or how much it will amount.

"Establishing terms of cooperation during its course indicates that suppliers do not know how much they will earn for carrying out orders. It is similar with regard to the additional discount. Contractors of Kaufland Polska Markety are unsure when the chain will demand reducing their remuneration. Cooperation between entrepreneurs should be fair, which means that the rules of such cooperation, including discount terms, should be clearly defined and known to the parties before signing the contract," states Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

This is yet another intervention of the President of UOKiK, which relates to the use of unfair discounts by retail chains. In December 2021, the decision concerning the owner of the Biedronka chain – Jeronimo Martins Polska – was issued. In April this year, UOKiK has published a report on discounts that outlines, among other things, what type of arrangements between chains and agri-food suppliers may be regarded as unfair exploitation of contractual advantage. Furthermore, investigations into the discount policies of Eurocash and SCA PR Polska (the Intermarche chain) are pending.

Unfair exploitation of contractual advantage is punishable by a fine in the amount of up to 3 percent of the annual turnover of the company.

Entrepreneur, farmer, if you operate in the agri-food industry and your contractor uses its advantage by imposing unfavourable terms of cooperation – report it to UOKiK. We have prepared a special form to help you report irregularities. Visit https://ankieta.uokik.gov.pl/formularz-zgloszenie-przewaga/ and fill in the questionnaire.