Selling two chocolate or breaded fish products of the same make and in identical packaging when one, for a specific part of Europe, has a lower cocoa or fish content is prohibited in the European Union and member states must act to end the illegal practice of dual quality standards.
To help them, the European Commission published guidelines on Tuesday 26 September informing member states how to use European law on foodstuffs and the rules on consumer rights in the internal market – and in particular legislation outlawing unfair trading practices. Its support for the member states will go further, notably through financial investment in improving testing of foodstuffs to make it possible to identify possible cheating by unscrupulous operators.
The guidelines seek to put an end to dual standards in the quality of foodstuffs and to address the legitimate demand by the countries of the Visegrad Group, which denounced the practice of which they felt they were victims. The guidelines were announced in July (see EUROPE 11838) and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker gave assurances in his State of the Union speech that there can be no second-class consumers in the EU (see EUROPE 11861).
Presenting these initiatives to the press, European Justice and Consumers Commissioner Věra Jourová spoke of “numerous complaints from consumers” about dual standards of food quality. “The guidelines will help national authorities negotiate this legislative maze and find the instrument to resolve these problems”, she stated. She acknowledged that, while in the spring the Commission felt there was little evidence that foodstuffs in the east of Europe were of lesser quality than those in the west, the problem was now affecting “several countries” and involved “about a hundred products”.
Cooperation of all. The approach advocated by the Commission will involve all the players: Commission, national consumer protection authorities responsible for applying EU law, producers and retailers, and also consumers. “If we have definite proof of differences in quality, I will not hesitate to intervene to inform consumers. I will point the finger at the companies behaving in this way”, Jourová said. Consumers will then be able to draw the lessons and stop buying the products of operators who are cheating them.
But it is not the Commission’s role to support a boycott. “That would be going too far”, the commissioner said in response to a question from a journalist.
The guidance lists and explains the relevant requirements from two key pieces of legislation: Regulation 1169/2011 which requires that consumers are given truthful and sufficient information about food products by means of clear, legible and informative labelling to allow consumers to make informed choices, and Directive 2005/29/EC which prohibits unfair commercial practices towards consumers.
Test methodology. The Commission will invest €1 million in the development by its Joint Research Centre (JRC) of a joint methodology to improve food product comparative tests carried out by national authorities, whose responsibility it is to ensure that operators comply with the law and which can cooperate cross-border. Preliminary results will be available in the first three months of 2018. The methodology will be tested in Bratislava for use in the first three months of next year Jourová said. “The JRC is looking for partners for its scientific work. It will not be able to work without scientific assistance from the member states”, she added.
Dialogue. The Commission has already begun a dialogue with producers and brand-name product associations which have pledged to adopt a code of conduct this autumn. “We want to see the quality improve, otherwise contested products will have to be marketed under another name”, the commissioner warned. She said that the strong pressure was bearing fruit: the company Bahlsen “has started using butter instead of palm oil in what is sold as butter waffles”.
On 13 October, the Commission will take part in the Consumer Summit, a high-level ministerial meeting in Bratislava organised by the Slovak and Czech governments, to discuss the issue of dual food quality. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)