Ljubljana, September 11, 2025 – Slovenia’s Competition Protection Commission (CPC) has found, after a sector inquiry, that contracts between agricultural cooperatives and suppliers included anticompetitive terms such as exclusivity obligations and tying agreements.
Most agricultural cooperatives in Slovenia are members of the Cooperative Union of Slovenia (ZZS), which brings together 60 agricultural and forestry cooperatives and three companies. According to ZZS data, its members on average purchase more than 75% of agricultural products from local farms and hold significant market shares in overall Slovenian purchases: milk (79.5%), slaughter cattle (66.1%), slaughter pigs (53.1%), grapes (71.2%), cereals including maize (31.6%), potatoes (17.1%), and vegetables (17.8%), according to the update.
For the sectoral inquiry, the CPC requested data from 25 cooperatives, selected to ensure an even representation by annual turnover in 2024 (ranging from €3m to €95m). The data covered the period from 1 February 2023 to 1 February 2025 and included purchases of live animals, fresh meat, fruit, and vegetables, along with contracts and supporting documentation.
The agency found that contracts often lacked mandatory elements required by law and sometimes included potentially unlawful terms, such as: exclusivity obligations without defined quantities, tying agreements, charges for product deterioration not caused by suppliers, and unilateral changes by the cooperative to key contract terms.
Alarmingly, none of the 25 cooperatives examined had contracts that fully complied with all statutory requirements, the update said.
Source: https://www.varstvo-konkurence.si/informacije/novica/agencija-je-zakljucila-raziskavo-sektorja/
