Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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1442. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 719 of 11 June 2019, the progress made in transposing and enforcing the EU unfair trading practices directive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36506/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Directive (EU) 2019/633 on Unfair Trading Practices in Business-to-Business Relationships in the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain (UTP Directive), was agreed on 13 March 2019. Transposition of the Directive is required within 24 months from publication on 17 April 2019.

The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) has responsibility for the current national legislation - the Consumer Protection Act 2007 (Grocery Goods Undertakings) Regulations 2016 - under which UTPs are addressed. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is the independent statutory body responsible for the enforcement of competition and consumer protection law and it is responsible for monitoring compliance with the Grocery Goods Regulations, investigating complaints and, where appropriate, taking enforcement action.

An Inter-departmental working group has been established between officials from my Department and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI). The group has met five times to date. This working group is finalising preparations for the launch of a stakeholder consultation process which will invite submissions from interested parties on the transposition and enforcement of the EU Directive.

This consultation will be launched in the near future.