Category: Global Courts
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Appellate Court Orders Chile to Release Data About Antibiotic Use in Salmon
A Chilean appellate court has ruled that the nation’s National Fisheries and Agricultural Services must issue its data about antibiotics in Chilean salmon, which revealed that 50 salmon firms jointly used 450.7 metric tons of antibiotics in 2013. Chile’s Council for Transparency previously refused to release the information to conservation organization Oceana, arguing that the…
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Lindt Prevails over Haribo in Gold Bear Battle
Germany’s highest court has ruled that Swiss chocolatier Lindt & Sprüngli did not violate German confectioner Haribo’s trademark “Gold Bear” when it began selling a chocolate bear wrapped in gold foil in 2011. Haribo has produced Gold-Bear® gummy bears for several decades, which are sold in gold packages featuring a yellow bear wearing a red…
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France’s Constitutional Council to Hear Challenge to BPA Ban
France’s administrative supreme court, Conseil d’Etat, has ruled that PlasticsEurope’s challenge to the country’s ban on bisphenol A (BPA) in food-contact materials can be heard in its Constitutional Council because the legal question presented is new. The plastics group argued that the opinion from the French Agency for Food, Environment and Occupational Health and Safety…
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ECJ Rules in Labeling Case Challenging German Tea Product
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has found that a correct and complete list of ingredients can be part of an overall misleading food label in a case challenging a German tea company’s “Felix Raspberry and Vanilla Adventure” (“Felix Himbeer-Vanille Abenteuer”) product for having no flavorings derived from raspberries or vanilla. Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentralen und Verbraucherverbände…
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KFC Sues Chinese Media Companies for Spreading Eight-Legged Chicken Rumors
Yum! Brands Inc.’s KFC has announced on its Chinese-language website that it has filed lawsuits against three Chinese media companies for allegedly spreading rumors that the company has bred its chickens to have eight legs and six wings. The complaint, filed in Shanghai Xuhui District People’s Court, reportedly alleges that the media companies disseminated false…
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Czech Dairy Spread Is Not “Butter,” EU Court Says
The General Court of the European Union has upheld a ruling that pomazánkové máslo, a product primarily marketed in the Czech Republic, cannot be labeled as “butter” under the single common market organization (CMO) regulation. Czech Republic v. European Commission, No. T-51/14 (Gen. Ct., order entered May 12, 2015). The product, a spread used in…
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Dutch Trader Jailed for Falsifying Documents in Horsemeat Scandal
A Dutchman has reportedly been sentenced to jail after authorities determined that his companies sold at least 336 metric tons of horsemeat labeled as beef in 2013. Willy Selten will serve 2.5 years for forging invoices, labels and declarations and using forged documents to sell meat. The court judgment apparently determined that Selten “contributed to…
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Sentences Determined for First Prosecutions in U.K. “Horsemeat Scandal”
According to a Crown Prosecution Service press release, Peter Boddy and David Moss have been sentenced in the first prosecutions stemming from the “horsemeat scandal” of 2013. Moss, the slaughterhouse manager, was convicted of falsifying an invoice during a U.K. Food Standards Agency investigation and received a four-month suspended prison sentence. Slaughterhouse owner Boddy was…