The law regulating the relationship of suppliers and retailers took off well

Márkaklub had a special meeting at FOODAPEST: on 1 January, the Act on the prohibition of unfair market conduct by the suppliers of the food product life cycle entered into force – stakeholders met to summarise their experiences. This meeting continued the round table discussion organised by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Law Firm Réti, Antall and Madl Landwell last December. Dr Judit Firniksz of PwC moderated the event, where László Lukács, the president of the Central Agricultural Office (MgSZH) told that their main goal, transparency seemed achievable, as the majority of stakeholders published their code of business practice before the 1 February deadline. He added that last year they imposed HUF 200 million worth of fines after 50 cases of selling below purchase price. Zsolt Feldman, from the Ministry of Agriculture spoke about the section of the law which deals with executives taking personal responsibility. Péter Feiner, the president of the Hungarian Trade Association said they would try to comply with the regulations and welcomed the fact that they had a chance to participate in the preparation and implementation of the law. However, he mentioned their problems that rooted from the statement of 29 January. Zoltán Fekete, the secretary general of Márkaszövetség shed light on the fact that the European Union is about to regulate this field. Kálmán Molnár from the Federation of Hungarian Food Industries (ÉFOSZ) informed about the experiences of suppliers from the past few months.