The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine has called for companies that engage in unfair trading practices (UTPs) to be fined either €10 million or 10% of their turnover.

The committee published a report today (Thursday, October 6) on its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Agriculture and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022 - the bill which will establish the Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain.

Th report makes several recommendations in advance of the bill making its way through the Oireachtas. The committee is calling for these recommendations to be included in the legislation.

Among the recommendations is a change to the fine structure for persons or entities that commit an offence under the bill.

In the current draft version of the legislation, this fine is limited to €500,000. The committee calls for this fine to be increased to either €10 million or 10% of a company's global turnover, whichever is greater.

The report said that this move would act as a deterrent to larger operators in committing an offence under the bill.

The committee has also called for the name of office to be changed to National Food Regulator.

Other key recommendations contained in the report include:

Speaking at the launch of the report at Leinster House today, committee chairperson Jackie Cahill said: "For years, stakeholders in the agri-food sector have advocated for a regulator in the food supply chain to ensure fairness, equity and transparency from the primary producer to the consumer.

"The sector plays a vital role in rural employment and contributes significantly to both the national and rural economy," he added.

EU Directive 2019/6331 on UTPs in the agricultural and food supply chain was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU in April 2019. EU Member States were required to transpose the directive into national law by May 1, 2021.

In April 2021, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue signed a statutory instrument transposing the UTP directive into Irish law.

At the time, the minister created an interim UTP Enforcement Authority within his department. The new Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain will take over the functions of the Enforcement Authority.

The UTP regulation aims to protect farmers, farmers’ organisations and other weaker suppliers in the agriculture and food supply chain against stronger buyers by prohibiting 16 specific UTPs.

10 of these are prohibited in all circumstances and six are prohibited unless the parties agree clearly and unambiguously beforehand.

The UTPs are as follows: