In a judgment (case C-618/23) handed down on Thursday, 26 June, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) ruled that a traditional herbal medicinal product—namely, a medicinal herbal tea—cannot, in principle, bear the European Union’s “organic” logo.
The press release for the judgment notes that unless “such an indication on the packaging has been approved by the competent authority on account of the beneficial effect of the organic production on the therapeutic characteristics of the medicinal product”, such a statement is deemed “promotional” by the court and thus goes against the rules governing the labelling of medicinal products.
The CJEU explains, “As medicinal products, [herbal teas] are covered exclusively by the EU rules on medicinal products and not by those relating to organic production and [the] labelling of organic products”.
A statement mentioning that the plants used were grown organically “could directly lead to a decision to purchase on the part of the patient, without that information necessarily having any value as regards health”, the court affirms.
A German court had referred the matter to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling in the context of a case between SALUS, the German company that was behind the marketing of a sage-based medicinal herbal tea bearing the official “organic” logo of the European Union, and Twardy, a competing company that had challenged this practice.
See the CJEU judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/hld (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)