The Competition and Consumer Protection Office has filed charges against Carerefour. The company is to usage contractual advantage towards agri-food suppliers. The punishment can scope 3% of the yearly marketplace turnover.
As part of the competences associated with combating unfair usage of contract advantage, the president of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny monitors the relations of large commercial networks with suppliers of agri-food products. 1 of the unfair practices described in the study was the request from suppliers for the service of distribution of products from central network warehouses to individual retail stores.
The central distribution of goods is an integral part of the business model of commercial networks and is in their interest, so it is unacceptable to require suppliers to charge for transport from the main warehouse to stores. In fact, this is simply a network shifting its own business costs to counterparties. This unfair practice may concern Carrefour Polska. For unfair usage of contract advantage she is facing a punishment of up to 3% of turnover – president of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny.
Carrefour Poland may unfairly usage contractual advantage over agri-food suppliers.
The president of UOKiK's reservations rise charges for transporting goods from the central warehouse to the network stores.
Details?????https://t.co/eSgqE9oOI0pic.twitter.com/2bX9hlbSdP
— UOKiK (@UOKiKgovPL) September 11, 2023
As noted by UOKiK, the operation of respective 100 stores belonging to the commercial network based on the regular reception of goods from many suppliers would be impossible or unprofitable. Widely understood centralization, including logistics, allows networks to negociate favourable trading conditions, through the usage of economies of scale. This is 1 of the pillars of the modern distribution channel and the profits of commercial networks, thus being a natural component of their business model. A non-infrastructured entity capable of centralising supplies would not be able to compete effectively with another commercial networks.
This is besides the case for Carrefour Polska. It is in the interests of the entrepreneur to distribute the goods to individual stores, even if he did not receive the money for it. At the same time, the findings made in the course of the current activities of the UOKiK concerning the relation of the commercial networks with suppliers of agri-food products indicate that there are operators on the marketplace who execute at their own expense the operations of distributing goods from distribution centres to retail outlets. This may mean that Carrefour Poland, erstwhile charging transport charges from central warehouses to stores, transfers the costs of its operations to suppliers. specified a practice may be a manifestation of unfair usage of contract advantage and is threatened by penalties to 3% of the yearly turnover of the entrepreneur.
Practices of French markets
Similar in February this year UOKiK accused Auchaun and Intermarche. Charges against discounts afraid unfair usage of contractual advantage vis-à-vis agri-food suppliers. The Authority found that SCA PR Poland (the purchasing centre for Intermarche stores) had concluded trade conditions agreements with agri-food suppliers for the following year late, expecting suppliers to take into account fresh conditions since the beginning of that year. Thus, the suppliers, in carrying out contracts between 1 January of the year in question and the date of signing the contract, were not certain under what terms and conditions the sale would be re-calculated. Moreover, there were situations where suppliers were subject to additional rebates not provided for in the first supply contracts.
In the course of the investigation process, Auchaun charged the contractors with the costs of transporting goods from warehouses to different markets, thus shifting part of the costs of carrying out their own core business to suppliers. Furthermore, not all suppliers were charged a transport charge. any were exempt from it, despite the transportation of goods besides to central warehouses, which may indicate unequal treatment of partners.
French companies in Poland pay little taxation than in Russia
It is worth reminding that according to the study of the Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers, French discounts Auchaun and Liroy Merlin in Poland paid microscopic taxes. Auchaun mentioned in 2020 introduced 5 times as much to the Russian budget than to the Polish tax. According to the analysis of the ZPP, between 2012 and 2020 Auchan paid 0.13% of CIT taxation in Poland (PLN 116,5 million), Leroy Merlin - 0.97% (PLN 477 million) and Decathlon - 0.85% (PLN 105,2 million). Auchaun and Liroy Merlin as any of the fewer did not retreat from the Russian marketplace after aggression against Ukraine.
– Maintaining the decision to proceed in Russia feeds the aggressor's budget and generates funds for war activities. This is hard to understand, all the more so, that business in this country is now at tremendous hazard and the purchasing power of Russian consumers is steadily falling. It is not amazing that those who have decided to proceed to operate in this country pay a symbolic CIT in Poland. However, this is an additional reason why urgent improvement of the taxation strategy is needed. Especially since the same entities pay importantly higher amounts to the Russian budget – board associate and manager of the Department of Law and Legislative ZPP Jakub Bińkowski.
As the portal for trade.pl emphasizes, the case of French companies one more time shows how ineffective the Polish taxation strategy is, in peculiar in the area of taxation paid by capital companies. It is indicated that CIT is de facto voluntary as it is paid only by those entities that do not apply taxation optimizations.
Rafal Brzoska, the owner of Inpost, tried to draw attention to the problem, which showed that at PLN 3.46 billion he paid PLN 222 million in income tax. This is 60 million PLN more than they paid Total all courier companies with abroad capital, even though they have achieved 6 times more revenue, due to the fact that PLN 12 billion. Inpost paid PLN 100 million more this year than in the erstwhile year, while any companies had a reduced taxation amount. The U.S. UPS in 2021 showed gross of PLN 1.6 billion and so paid a taxation of PLN 17.5 million, by PLN 5 million little than a year earlier. Disparity is huge.
PiSu politicians have been talking about patriotism for 7 years, but it is hard to see. Currently, Polish companies pay the biggest taxes, and those belonging to abroad capital groups bear inadequately low costs, but do not pay taxes at all and do not contribute to the Polish treasure. Rafał Brzoska could always registry his business in a taxation paradise, like Cyprus or Luxembourg, as Polsat did, but decided to show economical patriotism and stay in the country.
nationalists.net/ukik.gov.pl
