05/17/2021 9:58 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 05/17/2021 10:13 AM
This weekend the Gondolas Law began to apply throughout the country, which seeks to expand the range of offers and resist the increase in prices.
A month ago, the Ministry of Internal Commerce
established a Code of Good Commercial Practices for supermarkets and suppliers
.
What it is about and what changes are proposed by one of the plans designed by the Government in its fight against inflationary pressure.
Through Resolution 340/21 published on Monday, April 12 in the Official Gazette, Commerce created the complementary regulation that all businesses
covered by the Gondolas Law (Nº27,545
)
must apply
.
"The main axis of this regulation
is the promotion of equal treatment
towards all the different suppliers by all the businesses", details the official document.
One of the main changes that supermarkets must make according to the new Code is that
all products must be displayed uniformly on shelves
, without hanging structures that distort the display surface.
Which are the businesses required to comply with this law
Obliged businesses are those included in article 1 of Law 18425 on commercial promotion:
Supermarkets
Superstores
Self-service food and non-food products
Retail business chains
Wholesale sourcing organizations
The law exempts from the regime economic agents whose billing is equivalent to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MIPYMES).
What products should be displayed
It includes all
food, drink, personal hygiene and household cleaning products.
Most important points of the Code of Good Practices
Payments
: between small and large providers, the terms and payment methods must be the same under similar conditions, practices and situations.
"This point is essential to balance commercial relations and that micro, small and medium-sized companies can sustain their permanence in the gondolas," explained the resolution.
Exhibition
: be fair in terms of display, return of returnable containers, replacement, logistics and distribution.
Products should be displayed uniformly on shelves, without hanging structures to avoid any distortion.
Fair treatment
: between large companies, SMEs, cooperatives and entrepreneurs.
It reaches all businesses with annual gross billing greater than $ 300 million mobile units (Law No. 27,442).
Agreements with suppliers
: marketers are expressly prohibited from
demanding the delivery of free merchandise
or with bonuses for their commercialization at the points of sale and making provision agreements that impose insurance or advances on the supplier with discriminatory financial conditions.
Products that are misleading may not be displayed.
Supermarkets inspections
: days ago, the regulation that will govern
supermarkets due to the implementation of the new Law was made official.
The Ministry of Internal Trade, chaired by Paula Español, will be in charge of controlling compliance with the norm and applying sanctions to find a breach.
The establishments
"must provide inspectors with access to all existing exhibition areas to control compliance with the law
.
"
The
Gondolas Law
was enacted in December last year and aims to provide consumers with a greater offer in large supermarket chains and enable equitable treatment with micro and small businesses, cooperatives and family farming ventures. that provide their products.
Which products are cheaper and how to display them
According to Resolution 485/2021 of the Ministry of Internal Trade, published in the Official Gazette, it was established that the
lowest priced product will
be understood
to be those that, according to the unit of measurement, have the lowest list value offered to the
final
consumer
on a non-transitory basis.
With the measure, the Government stressed that it seeks to contribute to making the price of food, drink, hygiene and household cleaning products "transparent and competitive", for the benefit of consumers.
It also seeks to maintain harmony and balance between economic operators reached by law, in order to prevent them from engaging in commercial practices that cause market distortions.
But the measure seeks to open the door to products made by SMEs and that until now were marginalized by large chains.
The truth is that supermarkets with a surface area
greater than 800 square meters had to reform their spaces
to put the rule into practice and avoid penalties.
In this sense, it was established that
the products included in the Gondolas Law must have a border perpendicular to the shelf
with a
prominent
character
that contains the legend
"lower price per unit of measure".
The regulations also have a criterion for displaying and grouping products of the same category on a vertical basis, considering for this purpose the location of the lowest priced products on the middle shelf of the gondola and equidistant from its ends.
The sanctions
provided for those who
do not comply
with these regulations are those
provided for in the Supply Law
, according to the Ministry of Internal Trade, headed by Paula Español.
The law establishes that in the exhibitors that are attached to the cash desk where it is charged,
50% of the space must be occupied by products of micro and small national companies, cooperatives and mutuals.
In addition, there must
be at least five different suppliers for each category of products and that none exceed 30%
of the exhibition space in gondolas and that for each category there is
at least 25% of space in gondolas for micro and small companies .
Supermarkets must contemplate different terms and conditions of contracting the different suppliers depending on whether they are SMEs or sectors of the popular economy.
And they may not demand contributions or financial advances from suppliers or impose the delivery of merchandise free of charge or below the cost of provision as a condition to display the products.
YN
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