Compliance with unfair trading practice (UTP) legislation has improved, according to an Agri-Food Regulator survey released this week.

It finds that the number of respondents experiencing a UTP has fallen from one in seven in last year’s survey to one in nine.

There were 485 business responses to the survey relating to 1,313 trading relationships, an increase on the 306 suppliers relating to 948 trading relationships that participated in 2025.

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There are 10 unconditional UTPs established by EU legislation and a further six conditional UTPs that can be set aside provided there is agreement to do so between the supplier and buyer.

Non-compliances

The most common non-compliance with UTP legislation was with the cancellation of orders for perishable products with less than 30 days' notice.

This was experienced by 4% of respondents, while failure to comply with payment within 30 days for perishable products was experienced by 3%.

A further 3% responded that they had experienced failure to comply with payment withing 60 days as required for nonperishable products, 3% reported having to pay for the loss or deterioration of their product and 3% reported unilateral contract changes being made by the buyer. All of these are specifically forbidden by the legislation.

High level of satisfaction

These non-compliances were the exception, with the survey finding a high level overall in businesses in their interaction with buyers.

While the sample size is small in some cases relating to individual retailers, the level of satisfaction ranged between 72% and 80%, with an improvement reported by suppliers of seven out of the eight retail buyers.

The biggest issues found in the survey between suppliers in buyers related to issues not covered by the legislation.

The big issue for suppliers, reported by 24% of respondents, was pressure caused by pricing strategies and cost management, with 15% reporting pricing pressures or challenges in retail, with margin pressure squeezing supplier profitability.

Last resort

Even though the UTP legislation is now well established, there remains a reluctance by suppliers to use it and engage the Agri-Food Regulator.

The survey finds that this is viewed as the option of last resort, with a strong preference by suppliers to try to resolve issues directly on a one-to-one basis.

The relatively small number of buyers have a structural imbalance in their favour in dealing with a larger number of smaller suppliers.

This means that even with costs rising for suppliers, buyer prices are held steady or even pushed down as they control if, when and how prices chance.