Pratiche commerciali sleali e giustizia contrattuale nella filiera agroalimentare

With Directive 2019/633 on unfair trading practices in the agricultural and food supply chain, the European Union has adopted a regulation aimed at protecting vulnerable professionals from the unfair behaviour of dominant operators. Starting from this legislation and its transposition in Member States, this article intends to consider, more broadly, the judicial review of the contractual relationship between professionals with different bargaining power. As the case in question clearly shows, when faced with the need to rebalance the unequal distribution of value and to restore price profitability, the patent inadequacy of remedies acting exclusively on rights and obligations serves as a premise for solutions that increasingly focus on the economic content of the exchange. From this perspective, the regulation of unfair practices in agriculture becomes a privileged testing ground for a reflection on the definition of innovative regulatory models, which pave the way for stronger forms of control over contractual relationships between professionals, especially in markets characterised by a high concentration of power.