Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The relationships between businesses and the contracts entered into by them are essentially matters for agreement between the parties themselves and I have no direct function in the negotiation of such contracts. It is the case, however, that there are specific provisions in competition law which extend to business relationships, including relationships between suppliers and retailers. These provisions essentially prohibit undertakings from engaging in certain anti-competitive practices including price-fixing; applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage; making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other party of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connections with the subject of such contracts; abusing a dominant position; requesting "Hello money"; and imposing resale price maintenance.

As I have said on previous occasions, I would urge anyone who considers that he or she is being treated in an anti-competitive manner to bring his or her complaint to the attention of the Competition Authority, which is the independent statutory agency responsible for the enforcement of competition law in the State. Alternatively, a supplier can bring a private action to the courts either for breach of the Competition Acts or for breach of contract.

In so far as the issue of a code of practice is concerned, I am aware of suggestions that have been made by a number of commentators that consideration should be given to introducing a code of practice to regulate the relationship between suppliers and retailers, and this is being examined by me at present.

The Deputy will be aware that my Department carried out a review of the existing competition law framework in the course of 2008. Legislation is currently being prepared to give effect to a number of changes to competition law arising from that review. While I would have no objection in principle to considering any concrete proposals on the way competition law impacts on the relationships between businesses, any such proposals would need to address how any new regulations would be enforced in practice.

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