The Autorité de la concurrence has today published informal guidance in the area of sustainability, provided under the notice adopted on 27 May 2024.
An association, presenting itself as a trusted third party in the agro-ecological transition of agricultural holdings in France, consulted the General Rapporteur on the creation of a system for the collective financing of the additional costs and risks associated with the agro-ecological transition of agricultural holdings.
The General Rapporteur found the request to be admissible and that informal guidance could be provided given the importance of the transition for the agricultural sector, despite several aspects of the project still being under development.
In the letter sent to the requester, the General Rapporteur highlighted, in particular, the need to set transparent, objective and non-discriminatory conditions for participating in the project, unless otherwise justified. He also insisted on the need to use (i) scientifically sound tools to measure the transition of an agricultural holding and identify financing needs and (ii) a third party to collect, aggregate and anonymise the commercially sensitive data needed to implement the project.
In addition, the General Rapporteur outlined the analysis matrix to be used by project stakeholders to assess compatibility with competition rules, for the aspects of the project for which sufficient information was not available and, in particular, for the aspects relating to yield reduction and the payment of a premium by downstream players.
Lastly, the General Rapporteur recalled that farmers should be able to benefit from the monetisation of their agro-ecological data, in particular by downstream players.
Press release of 5 February 2025
Sustainability: the Autorité de la concurrence publishes informal guidance on the creation of a system for the collective financing of the additional costs and risks associated with the agro-ecological transition
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