On 4 April 2019, the Belgian legislator adopted an Act modifying the Code of Economic Law (CEL) in order to address abuses and unfair practices in business-to-business (B2B) relationships resulting from an imbalance in power between trading partners.
The New Act may be divided in two parts. The first part extends the application of the competition rules by introducing the concept of abuse of economic dependence, besides the abuse of dominance and anticompetitive agreements. The objective of this provision is to protect undistorted competition on the markets which is a matter of general interest. The second part of the New Act introduces a prohibition on unfair contractual terms in B2B relationships and reinforces the rules regarding unfair market practices. Those new rules aim at protecting individual interests of weaker parties by giving them additional tools to act against unfair terms and practices they may be subject to in their business relationships.