The General Court of the European Court of Justice has rejected a joint plea from the Health Food Manufacturers Association (HFMA) and Dutch trade association NPN for the permitted health claims regulation to be annulled.
The plea was lodged in September 2012 by the two groups as a “last resort action” to challenge what the associations argued were the “illegalities” of the European Commission’s approach to the health claims regulation.
The HFMA says the judgement “represents a total failure by the European General Court to recognize and address much of what is wrong” with the regulation.
HFMA chair, Robert Taylor said: “The HFMA and others took this legal action against the European Commission to halt the restrictive list of permitted health claims which effectively outlaws hundreds of well-established health claims on all foodstuffs including drinks, food supplements and foods. Just one example of hundreds of such claims is the failure to authorize the claim ‘dietary fibre helps maintain a healthy digestive system.”
“The Judgement represents a real missed opportunity to address a number of crucial issues and concerns, not least that of the Commission’s failure to meet the stated requirement that health claims should be “well understood by the average consumer”. We are now reviewing the Judgment in detail before deciding on further action.
“The Judgement represents a real missed opportunity to address a number of crucial issues and concerns, not least that of the Commission’s failure to meet the stated requirement that health claims should be ‘well understood by the average consumer’ “
“It would of course have been an extremely brave move for the European General Court to have overturned such a central piece of European legislation and we’re disappointed that, despite the fact that our legal arguments remain absolutely sound, the court was not prepared to take this step. Nevertheless, we believe that it was absolutely right that all of these points were made before the Court. In addition, we are heartened that since we launched this action over two years ago, the Commission has initiated and shown a willingness to open the discussion on certain areas.”
Saskia Geurts, director general of NPN, said the Dutch association “regrets the decision” and warned the inability of supplement manufacturers to make claims for their products would drive consumers towards unreliable information on the internet.
