THE LAW on retail chains, which prevents large chains from misusing their economic power in relation to suppliers, is to be revised. The cabinet approved a draft amendment to the law on May 13, but it must still pass parliament.
The European Commission has strongly criticised the law in the past, claiming it discriminated against retail chains. After the cabinet meeting, Eva Šimková, state secretary of the Economy Ministry, stated that the current form of the draft revision would be a compromise between the positions of Slovakia and the EU, the news wire SITA wrote.
The draft redefines the economic power of retail chains. In the original law, businesses were defined as abusing their market position if their market share exceeded 5 percent or their annual turnover, or was higher than Sk1.5 billion (€37 million). The current draft no longer uses these numbers to define the power of retail chains.
