2023 Volume 30 Issue 2 Pages 37-52
France has taken the steps to enact the Egalim law in 2018 and the Egalim II law in 2021 to establish rules for price formation to ensure fair trading relations and protect farmers’ remuneration. For farmers, who have less bargaining power, the Egalim II law has made it mandatory to make a contract between farmers and first purchaser with written contract documents containing a formula or term for the automatic revision of pricing of agricultural products considering the cost of production; the agreed price of agricultural products is also mandated to be transmitted to transactions between food processors and their purchasers.
The objective of this study is as follows; 1） to examine the details of the legal provisions as well as the background for the enactment of both laws; 2） to clarify the meaning of concepts and provisions that are unclear from the legal text, the discussions in governmental agencies and interprofessional organisations, and the state of implementation and preparation, based on field interviews; 3） further more to clarify the factors that enabled France to enter into the regulation of market conduct and to identify the issues for entering this domain in Japan.
