Senators and MPs have agreed to limit discounts on non-food items to 34%, on an experimental basis.
No more shampoos, creams or detergents at -70%. DMPs and senators agreed to ban super-promotions on hygiene products, Wednesday, March 15. Discounts were already capped at 34% for groceries. This limit will now also apply to products such as nappies or shower gels.
This measure is part of Renaissance deputy Frédéric Descrozaille’s bill. The text modifies, on an experimental basis, commercial relations between supermarkets and their suppliers. Seven deputies and senators agreed, during a joint joint commission (CMP), on a compromise version. The text must now be adopted in public session on March 21 by the Senate, and by the Assembly the following day.
Correcting an “imbalance” in the negotiations
At the end of the super-promotions for hygiene products, it was the senators who won their case. They had voted in this direction at first reading, considering that the “‘shock promotions’ were destroying value for hundreds of French SMEs”can we read on the Senate website. “These promotional operations are almost entirely financed by the manufacturers”, writes the economic affairs committee of the upper house, explaining that this system leads them to sell “at an extremely low price” or “sometimes to produce at a loss”.
During the joint committee, the parliamentarians therefore defended the suppliers. For the centrist rapporteur of the Senate, Anne-Catherine Loisier, the agreement tries above all to correct “the imbalance of the balance of power in trade negotiations” between manufacturers and distributors.
L’Ania, which defends food manufacturers, praised the work of parliamentarians to “make it very concrete to ensure fairer remuneration for farmers, fill legal voids that are sources of economic instability for companies” et “rebalance” the relationship between manufacturers and their buyers.
“Irresponsible and inflationary” for distributors
Since this text limits them in their promotions, the distributors have stepped up to the plate. This measure is “irresponsible and inflationary”, protested the Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD). Capping promotions at 34% on hygiene products is likely to “hit the French most in difficulty, by increasing the margins of the few giants in the sector for no reason”, believes the organization.
While inflation is at its highest, the end of these promotions is bad news for consumers. “Sorrows would say the timing is wrong”believes Philippe Moati, professor of economics at the University of Paris Cité, on Europe 1. “We are living through an inflationary period which weighs on the purchasing power of households and therefore this is not the time to adopt regulatory provisions to the detriment of household purchasing power.”
“It’s madness!” even reacted the president of System U, Dominique Schelcher, on Twitter. “On the one hand, we are being asked for an anti-inflation quarter in which we have immediately committed. On the other, Parliament is passing a law which limits promotions (…)”.
