Law to regulate retail chains fails

The Czech government has failed to approve a proposed law that would enable fines of up to 10 million crowns to be levied on retail chains that abuse their dominant position in the marketplace. The proposed regulation, put forward by the opposition Social Democrats, along with the Alliance of Czech Food Producers, would have mandated that retail giants negotiate fair deals with suppliers and would also mandate an ethical codex be put in place for stores doing more than 5 billion crowns worth of business of year. The ruling Civic Democrats have insisted that current legislation is sufficient to deal with this issue. Despite not being supported by the government, the proposed legislation will still be debated in the lower chamber.