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Clean Labels and “Self-evident” and “Flagrantly Misleading” “Palm Oil-free” Claims

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ignacio Carreño  and
Paolo Vergano
Ignacio Carreño
Affiliation:
FratiniVergano – European Lawyers, www.fratinivergano.eu.
Paolo Vergano
Affiliation:
FratiniVergano – European Lawyers, www.fratinivergano.eu.
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Abstract

This report addresses the legal concept of “self-evident” and “flagrantly misleading” advertising established in Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers (hereinafter, the Food Information Regulation, FIR). Since 13 December 2014 (since the specific origin of vegetable oils must be declared), “palm oil-free” claims on, e.g., a product containing sunflower oil or any other vegetable oil (and mandatorily indicating it in the list of ingredients) are arguably obvious, unnecessary and irrelevant (and in legal terms “selfevident” and “flagrantlymisleading”). Compared to similar foods that possess the same characteristics, but do not claim to be “palm oil-free”, these products are in no way “special”.

Type
Reports
Information
European Journal of Risk Regulation , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 284 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015

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References

1 Full title: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1924/2006 and (EC) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Commission Directive 87/250/EEC, Council Directive 90/496/EEC, Commission Directive 1999/10/EC, Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Commission Directives 2002/67/EC and 2008/5/EC and Commission Regulation (EC) No 608/2004, OJ 2011 L 304/18.

2 Carreño, Ignacio and Vergano, Paolo R., “Uses and potential abuses of “negative claims” in the EU: the urgent need for better regulation”, 5(4) EJRR (2014), pp. 469–490.Google Scholar

3 OJ 2006 L 404/9.

4 OJ 2006 L 376, repealing Council Directive 84/450/EEC relating to the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning misleading advertising, OJ 1984 L 250/17.

5 The expression of “misleading advertisements with certainties” (i.e., “self-evident” and “flagrantly misleading” advertising) stems from the German legal concept “Irreführende Werbung mit Selbstverständlichkeiten”. See for more detail on the legal concept: Voit, Wolfgang/Grube, Markus, Lebensmittelinformationsverordung, Kommentar (Munich: C.H.Beck 2013)Google Scholar, Art. 7, marginal 263–267; Natterer, Andreas/Kostenzer, Eva-Maria, Irreführende Werbung mit Selbstverständlichkeiten im Lebensmittelrecht, Ecolex 2013, p. 353–357 Google Scholar; Carsten Oelrichs, Clean labelling – und die Werbung mit Selbstverständlichkeiten, dmz 4/2014, p. 8–9.

6 There is no legal definition of “clean labelling”, however, it is generally accepted as being the removal of chemical-sounding ingredients such as artificial food additives and ingredients with E-numbers or the reduction of salt or fat in order to create a simpler ingredients’ list that also includes natural-origin-sounding ingredients or a healthier nutrient profile. See Annie-Laure Robin, Clean label in the EU, FoodCom, Issue 14/November 2010, p. 2.

7 OJ 2008 L 354/16–33.

8 Zipfel, Walter/Rathke, Kurt-Dietrich, Lebensmittelrecht, Kommentar, (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2014) C 102, § 11, marginal 217.Google Scholar

9 The opinion of the ALS is available on the Internet at: http://www.bvl.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/01_Lebensmittel/ALS_ALTS/ALS_Stellungnahmen_100_Sitzung_2012.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2 (last accessed on 4 March 2014).

10 The Order of the Administrative Court in Uppsala is available on the website of the Swedish Food agency at: http://www.slv.se/upload/dokument/nyheter/2010/maal_3453-10_och_3454-10.pdf (last accessed on 4 March 2014).

11 The opinion of the ALS is available on the Internet at: http://www.bvl.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/01_Lebensmittel/ALS_ALTS/ALS_Stellungnahmen_98_Sitzung_2011.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2 (last accessed on 4 March 2014).

12 President of the Commercial Court of Brussels 25 April 1986, Rechtskundig Weekblad (RW) 1986–87, 885–894, note G.L. Ballon.

13 Available on request by the Italian advertising self-regulation body (Instituto dell’Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria IAP) http://www.iap.it.

14 Case C-51/94 Commission v Germany [1995] ECR I-3599, paragraph 34; Case C-465/98, Verein gegen Unwesen in Handel und Gewerbe Köln eV v Adolf Darbo AG [2000], ECR I-2297 at para. 22.