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Dega (Environment and consumers) [1997] EUECJ C-83/96 (17 September 1997)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/EUECJ/1997/C8396.html
Cite as:
[1997] EUECJ C-83/96
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IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE -
IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE - The source of this judgment is the web site of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. The information in this database has been provided free of charge and is subject to a Court of Justice of the European Communities disclaimer and a copyright notice. This electronic version is not authentic and is subject to amendment.
JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (First Chamber)
17 September 1997(1)
(Consumer protection - Labelling of foodstuffs - Council Directive 79/112/EEC)
In Case C-83/96,
REFERENCE to the Court under Article 177 of the EC Treaty by the Corte
Suprema di Cassazione, Italy, for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings pending
before that court between
Provincia Autonoma di Trento and Ufficio del Medico Provinciale di Trento
and
Dega di Depretto Gino Snc
on the interpretation of Article 3(1)(6) of Council Directive 79/112/EEC of
18 December 1978 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating
to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs for sale to the ultimate
consumer (OJ 1979 L 33, p. 1),
THE COURT (First Chamber),
composed of: L. Sevón, President of the Chamber, P. Jann and M. Wathelet
(Rapporteur), Judges,
Advocate General: P. Léger,
Registrar: L. Hewlett, Administrator,
after considering the written observations submitted on behalf of:
- the Italian Government, by Professor Umberto Leanza, Head of the Legal
Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acting as Agent, assisted by
Danilo Del Gaizo, Avvocato dello Stato,
- the Greek Government, by Kontolaimos Vasileios and Maria Basdeki,
Assistant Legal Adviser and Legal Representative respectively in the State
Legal Service, acting as Agents,
- the Commission of the European Communities, by Antonio Aresu and
Paolo Stancanelli, of its Legal Service, acting as Agents,
having regard to the Report for the Hearing,
after hearing the oral observations of the French Government, represented by
Régine Loosli-Surrans, Head of Section in the Legal Directorate of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, acting as Agent; of the Italian Government, represented by Danilo
Del Gaizo; of the Greek Government, represented by Kontolaimos Vasileios; and
of the Commission, represented by Paolo Stancanelli, at the hearing on 17 April
1997,
after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 29 May 1997,
gives the following
Judgment
- By order of 4 December 1995, received at the Court on 18 March 1996, the Corte
Suprema di Cassazione (Supreme Court of Cassation) referred to the Court for a
preliminary ruling under Article 177 of the EC Treaty a question on the
interpretation of Article 3(1)(6) of Council Directive 79/112/EEC of 18 December
1978 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the
labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs for sale to the ultimate
consumer ('the Directive') (OJ 1979 L 33, p. 1).
- That question was raised in proceedings between, on the one hand, the Provincia
Autonoma di Trento (Autonomous Province of Trento) and the Ufficio del Medico
Provinciale di Trento (Medical Office of the Province of Trento) ('the
administrative authorities of the Province of Trento') and, on the other, the
partnership Dega di Depretto Gino ('Dega') concerning the latter's failure to
comply with the Italian legislation on labelling.
- Dega markets cans of pineapple in Italy, on which the labels state only the name
and address of the producer and packager, an undertaking established outside the
Community.
- On 13 June 1988, an administrative fine was imposed on Dega on the ground that
those labels did not bear the details of a trader established within the Community.
- In support of that decision, the administrative authorities of the province of Trento
relied on Article 3(h) of Decree No 322 of the President of the Republic of 18 May
1982 (GURI No 156 of 9 June 1982, p. 4167) according to which the labelling on
foodstuffs must indicate, in particular, 'the name or business name or registered
trademark and the registered office of the manufacturer or packager or of a seller
established within the European Community'.
- That article transposes Article 3(1)(6) of the Directive into Italian law. The
English version of that provision, which agrees with the French version, reads as
follows:
'1. In accordance with Articles 4 to 14 and subject to the exceptions contained
therein, indication of the following particulars alone shall be compulsory on the
labelling of foodstuffs:
...
(6) the name or business name and address of the manufacturer or packager, or
of a seller established within the Community.
...'
In contrast to the French and English texts, the Italian version of the Directive does
not include a comma between the words 'packager' and 'or of a seller established
within the Community'.
- By judgment of 20 November 1990, the Pretura (Magistrate's Court), Rovereto,
upheld the appeal brought by Dega against the decision of the administrative
authorities of the province of Trento and annulled the administrative fine. It held
that the expression 'established within the European Economic Community' in
Article 3(h) of Decree No 322 referred only to sellers, and that, as in this case, it
was sufficient to indicate the name and address of the producer and packager
established in a third country.
- By application of 3 June 1992, the administrative authorities of the province of
Trento lodged an appeal seeking to have the Pretura's judgment set aside. They
claimed that protection of the ultimate consumer is only fully guaranteed if details
of at least one trader established within the Community are indicated on the label,
whether of the manufacturer, the packager, or the seller.
- As the national provision at issue reproduces almost exactly Article 3(1)(6) of the
Directive, the Corte Suprema di Cassazione considered it necessary to refer the
following question to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling:
'Must Article 3(1)(6) of Council Directive 79/112/EEC (on the approximation of
the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising
of foodstuffs for sale to the ultimate consumer) be interpreted as meaning that the
expression "established within the Community" used in it refers only to the seller
or refers, in the absence of a seller established within the Community, also to the
manufacturer and/or packager? Must that provision therefore be taken to mean
that, in the absence of a seller established in the Community, the manufacturer
and/or the packager must be established in the Community?'
- The Italian and Greek Governments consider that the labels of products referred
to by the Directive must always bear details of a trader established within the
Community, whether of the producer, the packager or the seller. In their view, the
word 'established' is capable of referring without distinction to all the operators
mentioned in the Directive.
- Furthermore, they consider that interpretation to be in accordance with the aim of
the Directive, which is to inform and protect consumers. Article 3(1) is intended
to identify traders responsible for any misrepresentation, food-borne infections or
other injury caused by the product so that penalties can be more easily imposed
and compensation more easily sought. If the packaging of the products does not
bear details of a natural or legal person established in the Community, the
protection of consumers in that respect is severely jeopardized.
- That interpretation cannot be accepted.
- Firstly, it is apparent from the French, Danish, English, German and Dutch
language versions of the Directive that the expression 'established within the
Community' applies only to the seller. In the French, Danish and English versions,
the position of the comma serves to separate the seller from the other two traders.
Furthermore, that separation is reinforced in the English version by the fact that
the word 'seller' is preceded by the indefinite article 'a', whilst the words
'manufacturer' and 'packager' are preceded by the definite article 'the'. Finally,
the nature of German and Dutch syntax makes it even more clear that the
expression 'established within the Community' applies only to the seller ('den
Namen oder die Firma und die Anschrift des Herstellers, des Verpackers oder
eines in der Gemeinschaft niedergelassenen Verkäufers', 'de naam of de
handelsnaam en het adres van de fabrikant of van de verpakker of van een in de
Gemeenschap gevestigde verkoper').
- Secondly, it should be noted that the final version of the Directive does not take
up the punctuation proposed by the Economic and Social Committee in its opinion
on the draft directive (OJ 1976 C 285, p. 3, point 2.7.1), which was precisely
intended to apply the condition of Community establishment to all the traders
mentioned in the provision at issue.
- Thirdly, Article 3(1)(6) of the Directive must be interpreted with reference to the
purpose and general scheme of the rules of which it forms a part (Case 100/84
Commission v United Kingdom [1985] ECR 1169, paragraph 17; Case C-449/93
Rockfon v Specialarbejderforbundet i Danmark [1995] ECR I-4291, paragraph 28;
Case C-72/95 Kraaijeveld and Others v Gedeputeerde Staten van Zuid-Holland [1996] ECR I-5403, paragraph 28).
- In that respect, it is apparent from both the sixth recital in the preamble and from
Article 2 that the Directive was intended to ensure the information and protection
of the ultimate consumer of foodstuffs, in particular as regards the nature, identity,
properties, composition, quantity, durability, origin or provenance and method of
manufacture or production of those products.
- In particular, Article 3(1)(6) of the Directive 'is mainly intended to enable the
consumer to contact a person responsible for the manufacture or packaging of the
foodstuffs with a view to expressing any positive or negative criticism about the
product purchased' (Commission answer to a written question E-2170/95 of 28 July
1995, OJ 1995 C 340, p. 19).
- That goal can only be achieved if the ultimate consumer can easily identify the
person responsible for the product. In that respect, producers and packagers differ
from sellers. The former are generally established, easily identifiable traders,
meaning that the fact that they might be situated outside the Community does not
present a problem. In contrast, sellers are generally much smaller traders and,
consequently, more difficult to identify, particularly if they are established outside
the Community.
- That is why the Community legislature, for the purposes of the rules on labelling
of foodstuffs, laid down different rules in relation to traders depending on whether
they are manufacturers or packagers, on the one hand, or sellers, on the other. As
regards manufacturers and packagers, the label on the packaging may indicate
details of either one or the other, whether established within the Community or
outside; as regards sellers, the label may only indicate details of a trader established
within the Community.
- The answer to the national court's question must therefore be that Article 3(1)(6)
of the Directive is to be interpreted as meaning that the expression 'established
within the Community' used in it refers only to the seller.
Costs
- The costs incurred by the Italian, Greek and French Governments and by the
Commission of the European Communities, which have submitted observations to
the Court, are not recoverable. Since these proceedings are, for the parties to the
main proceedings, a step in the action pending before the national court, the
decision on costs is a matter for that court.
On those grounds,THE COURT (First Chamber),
in answer to the question referred to it by the Corte Suprema di Cassazione by
order of 4 December 1995, hereby rules:
Article 3(1)(6) of Council Directive 79/112/EEC of 18 December 1978 on the
approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling,
presentation and advertising of foodstuffs for sale to the ultimate consumer is to
be interpreted as meaning that the expression 'established within the Community'
used in it refers only to the seller.
Delivered in open court in Luxembourg on 17 September 1997.
R. Grass
L. Sevón
Registrar
President of the First Chamber
1: Language of the case: Italian.