On Thursday 12 July, the European Parliament’s committee on the internal market and consumer protection, in Brussels, suggested several measures should be adopted at European and national levels to tackle the problem of “dual quality” products (see EUROPE 12022, 11999).
With the adoption (33 for, 3 against and one abstention) of the report by Olga Sehnalova (S&D, Czech Republic) on “dual quality of products in the internal market”, MEPs point out the existence of disparities between products marketed and distributed on the single market under the same brand name and with the same packaging (“dual quality”). Such differences are found not only in food products (fish fingers, instant soup, coffee and soft drinks) but also non-food products (detergents, cosmetics, toiletries and products intended for babies).
MEPs call for cross-border cooperation and data sharing (on products that are potentially non-compliant) among national and consumer protection and food authorities, consumer associations and the European Commission, in order to tackle dual quality of products and to ensure better compliance with the legislation.
A common testing approach needs to be fully developed to help to determine the degree of severity of the problem, MEPs say. The results of such testing should be disclosed in a publicly available database and analysed “no later than by end of this year”, the parliamentary committee states.
It calls for last April’s communication on products presenting dual quality level to be completed. “The outcome of the legislative process should be a clear definition of what can be considered as ‘dual quality’ and how each case should be assessed and addressed”, the committee says.
EU-wide logo.
Consumer preferences should not be used as an excuse to lower quality and provide different qualities on different markets. MEPs invite manufacturers to consider including a logo on the packaging that would show that the content and quality of the same brand is the same across all EU countries. Olga Sehnalova’s report will be put to the vote during the September plenary session. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)