Case C-363/19: Judgment of the Court (Tenth Chamber) of 10 September 2020 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Patent- och marknadsdomstolen vid Stockholms tingsrätt — Sweden) — Konsumentombudsmannen v Mezina AB (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Food safety — Nutritional and health claims concerning foodstuffs — Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 — Articles 5 and 6 — Scientific substantiation for claims — Generally accepted scientific evidence — Article 10(1) — Article 28(5) — Transitional arrangements — Unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market — Directive 2005/29/EC — Article 3(4) — Relationship between the provisions of Directive 2005/29 and other EU rules regulating specific aspects of unfair commercial practices)
Date: 2020-09-10
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: consumer information, food safety, labelling, restriction on competition, scientific research








C_2020390EN.01001001.xml










16.11.2020   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 390/10






Judgment of the Court (Tenth Chamber) of 10 September 2020 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Patent- och marknadsdomstolen vid Stockholms tingsrätt — Sweden) — Konsumentombudsmannen v Mezina AB
(Case C-363/19) (1)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Food safety - Nutritional and health claims concerning foodstuffs - Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 - Articles 5 and 6 - Scientific substantiation for claims - Generally accepted scientific evidence - Article 10(1) - Article 28(5) - Transitional arrangements - Unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market - Directive 2005/29/EC - Article 3(4) - Relationship between the provisions of Directive 2005/29 and other EU rules regulating specific aspects of unfair commercial practices)
(2020/C 390/13)
Language of the case: Swedish

Referring court

Patent- och marknadsdomstolen vid Stockholms tingsrätt

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Konsumentombudsmannen

Defendant: Mezina AB

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 5(1), Article 6(1) and (2), Article 10(1) and Article 28(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods, as amended by Regulation (EC) No 107/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2008, must be interpreted as meaning that, under the transitional arrangements provided for in the latter provision, the burden of proof and standard of proof in respect of the health claims referred to in Article 13(1)(a) of that regulation are governed by Regulation No 1924/2006, which requires the food business operator concerned to be able to justify, by means of generally accepted scientific evidence, the claims which it uses. Those claims must be based on objective evidence which has sufficient scientific agreement.










2.


In the event of conflict between the provisions of Regulation No 1924/2006, as amended by Regulation No 107/2008, and those of Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market and amending Council Directive 84/450/EEC, Directives 97/7/EC, 98/27/EC and 2002/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Unfair Commercial Practices Directive), the provisions of that regulation take precedence and apply to unfair commercial practices in relation to health claims, within the meaning of that regulation.






(1)  OJ C 246, 22.7.2019.