Businesses will be able to lodge an appeal in court against information notices issued by the Agri-Food Regulator.

Additional powers allowing the Agri-Food Regulator to compel businesses to supply information to support its price market reporting role will come into force at the end of this year.

Last month, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon announced the introduction of the new regulations which is part of an effort to strengthen transparency and fairness across the agri-food supply chain.

The Agri-Food Regulator (An Rialálaí Agraibhia), which was established in December 2023, has a dual statutory role.

It enforces legislation on unfair trading practices (UTPs) and carries out price and market analysis to improve transparency and equity throughout the agri-food supply chain

Agri-food Regulator

The recently published legislation or statutory instrument (SI) has confirmed that the additional powers will come into operation on December 31, 2026.

Under the regulations, the regulator may compel necessary data impacting upon price and margins from a business within the agri-food supply chain where information sought by the regulator has not been provided voluntarily.

However, the regulations will exclude small businesses, which are defined as those which employ fewer than 50 people and whose annual turnover does not exceed €10 million.

The legislation also means that the regulator cannot compel data for an individual product from any business more than once in a 12-month period.

Appeal

In cases where the regulator is not satisified that it has been provided with information from a business that it requires to carry out its work, it will issue an information notice detailing the type of price and market data it needs.

The period within which the business has to comply with the notice cannot be less than 28 days. If a business fails to comply with the notice it will be deemed to be an offence.

Businesses may appeal against a requirement specified in the notice to the circuit court in accordance with the regulation within seven working days of the notice being served.

A judge may, if they are satisfied that it is reasonable to do so, confirm, vary or cancel the notice.

Reports

The legislation states that where the regulator believes that data relating to a business is or is likely to be of a commercially sensitive nature and is not in the public domain, the regulator will not publish the data without the consent of the business.

When providing information, a business may identify and make submissions on information that it considers to be commercially sensitive and should not be published. The regulator is required to have regard to such submissions.

Before publishing a report that includes information compelled under the new legislation, the regulator must perform and record a risk assessment.

The regulator must also make all reasonable efforts not to publish information that would affect the competitiveness of the Irish agri-food sector.