Ms Henrieta Jany-Roskova:

Basically, the retailers or the shops could have the same agreement with third-country operators but, of course, the sustainability standard that would need to be respected is that of the EU or of the member state where the goods are delivered because, exactly as the Senator said, it is not possible that operators from the third countries would benefit from the sustainability agreements following lower standards than the ones mandated by the Union or by an EU member state.

Investigations are dealt with in the Directorate-General for Competition. I cannot comment within the remit of my work on any ongoing investigation because I am not aware of those, but in the past, there have been investigations, for example, into retail alliances. However, my colleagues from DG Competition have not found any evidence that the rules have not been respected. This is why those investigations have been closed. This is just one example.

I am aware that several national competition authorities - for example, the Swedish competition authority and the Austrian competition authority - have conducted sector inquiries in the context of the cost-of-living crisis to see the reasons for the increases in prices.