For our international readership, could you briefly explain the convention whereby French retailers negotiate annual pricing contracts with suppliers? In order to ensure transparency (including compulsory disclosure of international agreements) and a fair balance in the commercial relationships, suppliers and retailers are required by law to negotiate and enter into mandatory written agreements, each for a period of one to three years, setting forth their mutual commitments further to such negotiations. These agreements must set forth their mutual obligations for purposes of the agreed prices: prices, rebates, discounts, business plans, product ranges and services to support the marketing of products or the business relationships. As more and more legal rules have been enacted to govern the fixation of prices (prohibition of rebates for fresh fruits and vegetables or for biocidal products, prohibition to negotiate the price of raw agricultural materials, specific disclosure of the structure of prices for agricultural products), the negotiations have focused more and more on the services and the counterparts offered by retailers, leading to the prohibition of granting advantages with no counterpart or which are clearly disproportionate vis-à-vis the value of the agreed counterpart. Most of the commercial agreements are concluded on an annual basis pursuant to a very tight schedule, putting pressure on both sides; the supplier must send its general sales conditions – a key document for the negotiations – no later than 1 December of each year, 2023’s Challenges for French RetailerSupplier Negotiations Thought Leader Annually, French retailers and their suppliers are required to negotiate and agree upon pricing arrangements for the year to come. With the latest deadline for agreement on general sales conditions looming large, FLV & Associés partner Anne Granger takes a closer look at the obstacles facing the companies concerned and the challenges that they and the broader French business landscape must soon tackle. 64 LAWYERMONTHLYDECEMBER 2022
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