Unfair practices and illicit conduct in food supply chains in Slovenia

Abstract

The food supply chain in Slovenia is highly developed, but it involves unequally developed stakeholders with different bargaining power. Upon reviewing all stakeholders through participatory research, it is made clear that in the whole food supply chain, retail chains generally have the greatest and primary producers the smallest bargaining power. For this reason, in the process of regulating mutual relations in contractual commitments and mutual operations, unfair practices and illicit conduct often emerge, through which the parties with significant market power impose additional discounts, rebates and other contributions on the parties with smaller market power in order to improve their own financial management. Unfair practices and illicit conduct lead to the weakening of the entire food supply chain, so it is important to recognise such tendencies in the food chain. In this article, the autor would like to draw attention to the illicit conduct and unfair practices in Slovenia which are used by retail chains in their interpersonal relationships and their dealings with suppliers.