The New 30% Rule: A Viable Solution to Detrimental Buyer Power in the Finnish Grocery Retail Sector?

"The functioning of the food supply chain plays a substantial role in the European economy and for individual consumers, since food represents a notable part of the expenditures of European households.

The functionality of the food supply chain in the EU has been called into question, not least due to considerably high food prices. The identified reasons for this consumer-harming price development are linked to anti-competitive practices, and to abusive conduct by major operators in particular, resulting from the significant retail-driven buyer power of large grocery retailers. Buyer power can be both beneficial (often called countervailing buying power) and harmful to consumers. The struggle over the detrimental effects of buyer power has produced various attempts to construct models of enforcement among the EU Member States, including different soft law and hard law measures, as well as combinations of such accompanied by a dedicated enforcement body, such as the Ombudsman."