PM Mitsotakis Urges EU Action Against Unfair Market Practices

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has addressed a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, highlighting the issue of Territorial Supply Constraints (TSCs) and restrictions within the European Single Market. With the recent inflation crisis impacting the purchasing power of European citizens, Mitsotakis emphasised the need for decisive action to ensure fairness and transparency for consumers across member states.

In his letter, Mitsotakis urged for bold steps to enhance competition and transparency within the single market, emphasising the collective effort needed to improve citizens' standard of living. He pointed out the disparities in prices of essential consumer goods sold by multinational companies across EU countries, attributing these discrepancies to territorial supply constraints that exploit the dominant position of large corporations.

He wrote, "One of the most important issues of concern to the Greek market, but also to other member states, the Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Luxembourg and Slovakia, is the unreasonably high prices at which branded essential  consumer goods from multinational companies are sold compared to other EU countries.

One of the main reasons for this undesirable situation is the territorial supply constraints
imposed by large multinationals on the market of the member states of the European Union in order to take advantage of their dominant position in smaller ones. The result creates significant differences in the selling prices of essential consumer goods that are neither justified by objective factors or by the average income level of citizens of the member states."

The Prime Minister proposed legislative measures at the EU level to address unjustified territorial supply restrictions and unfair commercial practices. These measures include strengthening EU competition law, prohibiting unfair practices that impede parallel trade, removing language restrictions on product labelling, and preventing multinational companies from applying differentiated pricing based on market dominance.

Mitsotakis emphasised the importance of promoting fair competition and eliminating barriers to cross-border trade to ensure that European citizens can fully benefit from the single market. He called for collective action to safeguard consumer rights and uphold the principles of inclusiveness and cohesion within the European Union.