2024-08-14 19:29:53
Michel-Edouard Leclerc says he expected this, it’s true: the fraud crackdown is raging, and E.Leclerc, a leading French food distributor, has just been hit with a heavy fine, accused of missing negotiation deadlines with suppliers.
The group received a fine of just over 38 million euros on Wednesday through its European procurement hub Eurelec for failing to comply with negotiation deadlines with 62 suppliers, the largest fine ever imposed in such a case.
Michel-Edouard Leclerc feels ‘personally’ targeted
But his spokesman, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, said in February that he expected subpoenas and sanctions following the trade talks and even considered being “personally” targeted by the majority “group of representatives.”
Because this year, the rules of the business game have changed. Normally, manufacturers and distributors have until March 1 to agree terms of sale for most products sold in supermarkets for the rest of the year. But the government has unusually brought forward the deadline for those negotiations, hoping that price cuts on some foods can be passed on to stores more quickly after a period of high inflation.
Strengthening control in the context of agricultural crisis
As a result, the deadline for suppliers with a turnover of less than 350 million euros has been shortened to January 15 and for the largest suppliers to January 31 at the latest.
The DGCCRF has stepped up its controls to quell the agricultural crisis. In fact, at the beginning of the year, farmers took action, blocking roads and demanding a “decent income”. In mid-February, at the height of the agricultural crisis, the government entrusted majority deputies Anne-Laure Babault and Alexis Izard with the task of establishing by summer the means of negotiating rules between farmers and industrialists on the one hand and distributors on the other.
But the draft text was shelved when the National Assembly was dissolved. In addition, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said in February that he had found 124 contracts signed between manufacturers and distributors as part of commercial negotiations that did not respect the Egalim law and issued an injunction to force the companies concerned to comply with it.
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