12. Insists also that independent brands should be placed alongside retailers’ own brands on supermarket shelves so that the consumer is given as wide a choice as possible and rejects unfair in-store marketing practices which favour own brands against independent brands; calls for greater transparency and fairness in pricing practices for own and independent brands; insists that there must be rules in place to prevent parasite-style copying of independent brands by large retailers to create their own brands;

33. Calls on the Commission to examine whether and to what extent the misuse of private labels (own brand products) and the practices of buying alliances by supermarket chains, lead to unfair competition and pressure on farmers and the systematic reduction of producer prices; stresses that the misuse of private labels has an adverse impact on producers' capacity to innovate (especially small producers); urges the Commission to take action in this regard so that farmers and producer groups are treated fairly in the process of price building;

64. Is concerned at the fact that the negotiating strength of food producers at the expense of retailers, due to a strong brand name or product differentiation, acquires a disproportionately negative significance in the above-mentioned Commission Communication on food prices in Europe, compared to other very much more important factors such as imperfect competition or oligopolistic/monopolistic practices; takes the view that the creation of a strong brand name or product differentiation are legitimate practices and that it is only the abuse of the position which these practices may confer that constitutes unfair practice;

The second reason is that in our view the purpose of trademark law is not to seal off markets, allowing there to be different price systems inside and outside the EU, especially more expensive prices inside the EU and more reasonable ones outside; rather we are of the opinion that this is a matter for competition and not trademark law.

A recent Commission Prices survey indicated that price differences of 30 or 40% between the EU countries with lowest and highest prices are not exceptional, for example, for branded consumer electronics goods (and such differences cannot be explained only by differences in indirect taxes) [37].

Despite the powerful interests concerned with preventing the world trade in trade mark products, the unusual report by a consulting company which states that consumers would not benefit immediately from the acquisition of goods at lower prices and the lukewarm position of the Commission which does not seem interested in seeking a solution to a problem which has a very negative effect on European consumers, the rapporteur, Mr Mayer, has been able to produce a report urging persistence in the quest for formulae which prevent manufacturers of trade mark products from maintaining excessively high prices on European markets.