MPs want to regulate chain store policies

A group of opposition Social Democrat MPs submitted a draft bill to the Czech Parliament on Thursday which should improve the policies adopted by large chain stores towards their suppliers. If passed, the bill will introduce a duty for large chain stores with annual turnovers over five billion crowns, or almost 300 million US dollars, to introduce codes of ethics to follow when negotiating with their suppliers. The suppliers have complained that large supermarket chains push the prices down too much and they require additional fees for placing particular products at the best parts of shelves. While chain stores have rejected the proposal, the sales of ten largest supermarket chains in the Czech Republic rose by 31.3 billion crowns, or more than 1.8 billion US dollars in 2007.