Brussels, 06/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - A wine grower may not market a wine by claiming that it is “easily digestible” (accompanied by a reference to “gentle acidity”), as this is a health claim that is banned for alcoholic beverages in the European Union, the EU Court of Justice ruled on Thursday 6 September (Case C-544/10).
Referral had been made to the Court for a ruling on the case of a German wine-growers' cooperative, Deutsches Weintor, established in Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany), which promotes some of its wines of the Dornfelder and Grauer/Weisser Burgunder grape varieties described as “mild edition, easily digestible”. The use of such labelling is challenged by the regional authorities, on the grounds that it is a “health claim” that is prohibited by EU law. The producer, on the other hand, defended his case, arguing that the description “easily digestible” does not refer to health but only to general well-being. In its ruling, the Court found the cooperative was in the wrong, underlining that “the claim might suggest a sustained beneficial physiological effect consisting in the preservation of a healthy digestive system, contrary to other wines, which are presumed to result, after being consumed a number of times, in sustained adverse effects on the digestive system and, consequently, on health. Consequently, that description constitutes a prohibited health claim”.
Furthermore, the Court finds that the fact of prohibiting, without exception, a producer or distributor of wine from using a claim such as that in this instance, even if that claim is inherently correct, is “compatible with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and with the principle of proportionality”. The prohibition strikes a fair balance between the protection of consumers' health, on the one hand, and the freedom of producers and distributors to choose an occupation and to conduct a business, on the other.
In this context, the Court notes that all claims in relation to alcoholic beverages must be entirely unambiguous. (LC/transl.jl)