Tackling the ‘Terrible Ten’: why a Single Market does not mean a Single Cost

As EU leaders meet on Thursday, to discuss the barriers holding back the Single Market (the so-called 'Terrible Ten'), FoodDrinkEurope urges policymakers to tackle imbalances in the Single Market and address retail concentration.

Addressing territorial supply constraints (#10 of the 'Terrible Ten') means getting to grips with an uncomfortable truth: The Single Market is not a "single cost" market. Different national rules, different tax regimes, different labour costs, and different production processes across 27 Member States inevitably lead to different price levels on the shelf.

Even retailers themselves price their own products differently across borders. A recent case study showed the same Dutch retailer selling their own private label product almost 100% more expensive in the Netherlands than in Belgium.

These same retailers organise themselves into European retail alliances, often based outside the EU or in Member States with weak protections, and force farmers and food and drink makers to negotiate prices through these coercive opaque groupings.

"If the EU is serious about tackling the 'Terrible Ten' barriers to business, it must confront the growing power of European retail alliances," said Dirk Jacobs, Director General of FoodDrinkEurope, "these alliances exacerbate fairness issues in the food chain, hurting farmers and food and drink makers across the Single Market."

Ensuring fairness across the food chain is essential for Europe's competitiveness. In the forthcoming revision of the Unfair Trading Practices Directive, the European Commission should extend the scope of the Directive so that all suppliers across the Single Market, regardless of size, are protected from unfair trading practices.