Directory of Legal Services Gondolas Law.Exhibition spaces of the same supplier

Law 27.545, called Gondolas Law (published in the Official Gazette on March 17, 2020), declares, in its article 1, that its objectives are:

a) Contribute to the price of food products, drinks, hygiene and household cleaning being transparent and competitive, for the benefit of consumers;

b) Maintain the harmony and balance between the economic operators achieved by law, in order to prevent commercial practices that harm or imply a risk to competition or cause distortions in the market;

c) Expand the offer of national artisanal and/or regional products produced by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and protect their performance;and

d) Promote through a special regime, the supply of products of the family, peasant and indigenous agriculture sector, defined by article 5 of Law 27.118, and of the popular economy, defined by article 2 of the Annex to Decree 159 of March 9, 2017, and the products generated from cooperatives and/or mutual associations in the terms of laws 20.337 and 20.321.

To achieve the objectives declared in its article 1, the Gondolas Law provides -among other measures -, in its article 7, a series of products of product exhibition that must be met in the gondolas of the establishments of the “subjectsachieved ", in accordance with article 3 of the law mentioned.[1]

Thus, subsection a) of article 7 establishes that “in gondolas and virtual locations the exhibition of products from a supplier or business group may not exceed thirty percent (30%) of the available space that it shares with products of similar characteristics.Participation must involve not less than five (5) suppliers or business groups; ".

Subsection b), in turn, provides that: “In gondolas and virtual locationsNational Companies registered in the MSMEs Registry and/or in the RENAF, or those that in the future replace and/or produced by cooperatives and/or mutual associations under the terms of Law 20.337 and Law 20.321;and additional five percent (5%) for products originated by family, peasant or indigenous agriculture defined by article 5 of Law 27.118, and the sectors of the popular economy, defined by article 2 of the Annex of Decree 159/2017; ".[2]

Finally, article 7, in subsection d), establishes that: “In the exhibition islands and exhibitors adjacent to the boxes they must be submitted at fifty percent (50%) of the space products made by micro and small national companies inscribedin the MSMEs Registry and/or in the RENAF, or those that in the future replace them and/or produced by cooperatives and/or mutual associations in the terms of Law 20.337 and Law 20.321, or those that in the future replace them; ".

The resolution of the Ministry of Internal Trade - which is the Authority for Application of Law 27.545 [3] - N ° 190/2021, issued on 2/24/2021, determines, in its article 3, that the “subjects reached" by law must dispose of the grouped exhibition of the “products achieved" [4], in such a way that they can be visualized through their continuous and close location in the gondolas, avoiding the dispersion of products of the same category in the sales hall.

The measuring instruments to be used in inspections related to compliance with the exhibition rules imposed by the law of gondolas, the object of these inspections and their procedure were established in Annex II, “Regulation of Inspections", of the aforementionedResolution 190/2021.

The resolution of the Ministry of Internal Commerce 1055/2021, issued on November 19, 2021, establishes - as it says in its recitals - complementary provisions of the aforementioned inspection regulation, with the declared object “… to transparent and clarify the provisions of thesubsection a) of article 7 of Law No. 27.545, of gondolas, to determine the percentage of the exhibition space of the same supplier or business group… ", on the total exhibition area in gondolas, in the face -to -face sales rooms, with respect to each category of the" products achieved ".

To do this, it determines, in the first place, the way in which the exhibition space in gondolas must be calculated, for the same provider or economic group (resolution 1055, article 1).

It provides in this regard that to make the calculation, the spaces occupied by the groupings of the products of the same provider or economic group within the same category must be added, defined as such in Annex II of the Resolution of the Ministry of Internal Commerce No.110, of January 27, 2021 [5], in the gondolas existing in the inspected -face sales establishment.

Subsequently, resolution 1055 establishes that the surface resulting from the multiplication of:

(i) the base of the shelf or exhibition device that occupies a homogeneous group of products from the same provider or economic group, within the same category, by

(ii) the total height of said/s shelf, regardless of the height of the products exhibited - obviously lower than that of the shelves in which they are exhibited.

And clarifies that, in the event that on the last shelf or exhibition device there is no shelf or structure at the top, then the height that results from the product or group of higher products must be taken into account.

The exhibition surface thus obtained must be later - obviously - compared with the total of the exhibition surface in gondola of the category of products in question, to establish the percentage occupied by the products of the same provider or economic group within the category.

Article 2 of Resolution 1055 provides in its first paragraph that “the exhibition surface to be computed from the same provider or economic group must respond to a group of easily recognizable and available products for the acquisition of consumers.

And it clarifies, in its second paragraph that the spaces occupied by dispersed products should not be added, which are not exhibited in a grouped form or that occasionally occupy spaces of exhibition of another brand or supplier and where it can be presumed that its isolated location responds to manipulationof consumers.

The rule of article 3, in turn, establishes that empty or semi -vaulous gondolbusinessman.

Finally, article 4 of Resolution 1055, provides that the exhibition in gondolas of products subject to specific price conditions and supply for sale under the program called “Care Prices" - that they must maintain the agreed exhibition conditionsWith the application authority [6] -, “… they will not be computed for the purpose of accounting for the exhibition space for the products of the main supplier, in accordance with the provisions of subsection a) of article 7 of Law N° 27.545 of gondolas."

Even though some of the clarifications contained in resolution 1055/2021 can be considered obvious, I believe that they are in any case useful to minimize the probabilities of sterile discussions, which would cause a dispensation of jurisdictional activity and time and money of the administered.

In a provision that I understand is overabundant, the rule of the first paragraph of article 5 of Resolution 1055/2021 establishes that: “During the control procedure the person responsible for the face -to -face sale must guide and allow access to the/The inspectors/is for all gondolas spaces where the products that make up the inspected categories are exhibited."

In its second paragraph, the aforementioned article 5 establishes that: “To this purpose, the inspectors/is to be listed to the person in charge of the Sales Hall the categories object of inspection and the products that compose it, in accordance with Resolution N° 110/21 of the Ministry of Internal Commerce, of what will be recorded in the respective act."

Article 5 ends with the command of an obligation to the inspectors, which well fulfilled, I understand that it will help minimize questions.

Because it forces the inspectors to make a photographic record of all the exhibition spaces in gondola containing the products of the main provider of the category and whose measures have been relieved, to verify the percentage that they occupy within the gondola, which although althoughThe norm does not say it, it should also be photographed in its entirety, to enable the calculation.“These records will be part of the inspection act and must consign the day and time in which they were obtained."