Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2006:553
Date: 2006-09-12
Language of the case: Italian
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Consumer protection;Approximation of laws
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment Approximation of laws – Labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs – Directive 2000/13 (Directive 2000/13 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Arts 2, 3 and 12) Articles 2, 3 and 12 of Directive 2000/13 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs are to be interpreted as not precluding legislation of a Member State which makes it possible for an operator, established in that Member State, which distributes a pre-packaged alcoholic beverage to be delivered as such within the meaning of Article 1 of that directive, produced by an operator established in another Member State, to be held liable for an infringement of that provision, established by a public authority, resulting from the producer’s inaccurate statement on the product label of the alcoholic strength by volume of the product and, consequently, to be penalised by an administrative fine, even where, as the mere distributor, it simply markets the product as delivered to it by the producer. National legislation which, where there is infringement of that obligation with regard to labelling, provides for liability not only on the part of the producers, but also of the distributors, is not such as to compromise achievement of the result prescribed by that directive. On the contrary, such legislation, inasmuch as it gives a wide definition of the circle of operators which may be held liable for infringements of the obligations with regard to labelling pursuant to Directive 2000/13, is manifestly such as to contribute to the achievement of the aim pursued by that directive of informing and protecting the ultimate consumer of foodstuffs. Moreover, in principle it is for national law to lay down the methods by which a distributor may be held liable for infringement of the obligation as regards labelling imposed by Articles 2, 3 and 12 of Directive 2000/13 and, in particular, to regulate the apportionment of respective liability between the different operators involved in the marketing of the foodstuff in question. (see paras 49-50, 59-60, operative part)