Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Free movement of goods ° Quantitative restrictions ° Measures having equivalent effect ° Prohibition of the sale of bakery products whose salt content is higher than 2% ° Not permissible ° Justification ° Protection of public health ° No justification

(EEC Treaty, Arts 30 and 36)

2. Free movement of goods ° Quantitative restrictions ° Measures having equivalent effect ° National legislation prohibiting, as provided by Council Directive 79/112/EEC, the sale of foodstuffs on whose packaging neither the specific name nor the EEC number of the preservatives used is designated ° Application to products imported from another Member State which has exercised the derogation option allowed by the directive ° Measure justified for the purpose of protecting consumers ° Permissible

(EEC Treaty, Art. 30; Council Directive 79/112/EEC, Arts 6(5)(b), second indent, and 23(1)(a))

Summary

1. National legislation prohibiting the marketing of bread and other bakery products whose salt content by reference to the dry matter exceeds the maximum permitted level of 2%, when applied to products which have been lawfully manufactured and marketed in another Member State, constitutes a measure having an effect equivalent to a quantitative restriction within the meaning of Article 30 of the EEC Treaty.

In so far as the Member State in question relied on general conjecture instead of data based on relevant scientific research, and thus failed to prove that the rules in question are necessary in order to protect consumer health and that they go no further than is necessary in order to achieve that aim, those rules cannot be regarded as justified under Article 36 of the EEC Treaty on the ground of protecting public health.

2. In the context of Council Directive 79/112 on the labelling and presentation of foodstuffs, which represented only the initial stage of the harmonization process in that sector, a Member State which had made it obligatory to designate, as provided by the second indent of Article 6(5)(b), either the specific name or the EEC number of the ingredients listed in Annex II to that directive, was entitled to rely on the imperative requirement of protecting consumers in order to prohibit the marketing of a product from another Member State which had chosen to exercise the option allowed by Article 23(1)(a) of that directive and to require only designation of the general category "preservative".

Even though such a prohibition was, in principle, caught by the prohibition in Article 30 of the Treaty, it was justified by that imperative requirement in so far as it was not out of proportion to the desired result and hindered as little as possible the importation of products lawfully manufactured and marketed in other Member States, since to designate only the general category "preservative" is inadequate, particularly in view of the multiplicity of preserving agents which the products in question may contain and in view of the fact that labelling is one of the means that least restricts the free movement of goods within the Community.