Greek PM urges Commission to take action on multinationals

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has penned a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging action on the issue of Territorial Supply Constraints (TSCs) within the European Single Market.

TSCs are restrictions imposed by multinational manufacturers to prevent retailers and wholesalers from sourcing where they wish within the European Single Market. A past study by the Commission has found that TSCs cost EU consumers more than €14 billion a year.

The letter, dated May 18, outlines Mitsotakis’ concerns regarding the impact of TSCs on consumer purchasing power and calls for decisive measures to address the issue.

“The recent inflation crisis has led to a significant erosion of the purchasing power of European citizens, and has highlighted on the one hand the asymmetric power of some large multinational companies in terms of their differentiated pricing policy vis-a-vis individual member states, and on the other the untapped collective power of our Union,” he says in the letter.

“In view of the upcoming European elections, a crucial political challenge for the EU is to demonstrate not only its ability to set the right priorities in the light of the problems that are of concern to European societies – and tackling high prices is undoubtedly one of them – but also to intervene decisively, swiftly and effectively in order to find solutions to these problems,” he says.

In the same letter, the Greek premier advocates for “bolder steps” to enhance competition and transparency within the Single Market, ensuring that all citizens, “regardless of the country in which they live be able to enjoy the results of the ambitious common European project.” He emphasizes the need for EU-level legislation to effectively address the practice of TSCs, which, he says, unfairly inflate prices of branded essential consumer goods from multinational companies in certain member states compared to others.

Mitsotakis concludes by identifying several key measures to combat TSCs, including strengthening EU competition law, prohibiting unfair commercial practices that hinder parallel trade, removing language restrictions on product labeling, and preventing multinational companies from applying differentiated pricing strategies across member states.