Judgment of the Court (Eighth Chamber) of 1 December 2022 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Bayerisches Verwaltungsgericht Ansbach – Germany) – LSI – Germany GmbH v Freistaat Bayern
(Case C-595/21) 1
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Consumer protection – Provision of food information to consumers – Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 – Article 17 and point 4 of Part A of Annex VI – ‘Name of the food’ – ‘Name of the product’ – Mandatory particulars in food labelling – Component or ingredient used for the partial or whole substitution of the component or ingredient which consumers expect to see normally used or present in a food)
Language of the case: German
Referring court
Bayerisches Verwaltungsgericht Ansbach
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: LSI – Germany GmbH
Defendant: Freistaat Bayern
Operative part of the judgment
Article 17(1), (4) and (5) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1924/2006 and (EC) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Commission Directive 87/250/EEC, Council Directive 90/496/EEC, Commission Directive 1999/10/EC, Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Commission Directives 2002/67/EC and 2008/5/EC and Commission Regulation (EC) No 608/2004, in conjunction with point 4 of Part A of Annex VI to Regulation No 1169/2011,
must be interpreted as meaning that:
the expression ‘name of the product’ in point 4 of Part A of Annex VI does not have a separate meaning that is different from that of the expression ‘name of the food’, as referred to in Article 17(1) of that regulation, with the result that the special labelling requirements provided for in point 4 of Part A of Annex VI to that regulation do not apply to the ‘name protected as intellectual property’, the ‘brand name’ or the ‘fancy name’ as referred to in Article 17(4) of that regulation.
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1 OJ C 502, 13.12.2021.