Foreign food must not simply look like original

21-Dec-2020 - Luxembourg

food from foreign suppliers may not be called the same or look the same as agricultural products with a protected designation of origin in EU states without further ado. The European Court of Justice on Thursday banned products that are so similar in shape and appearance to a product with a registered name that consumers could confuse them with the original - even if they are called something else.

Bild von <a href="https://pixabay.com/de/users/lver-14914528/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=4765849" marked="1">Laurent Verdier</a> auf <a href="https://pixabay.com/de/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=4765849" marked="1">Pixabay</a>

Specifically, the ruling concerned a case from France: an association there sued a company because its cheese with a black stripe looks like dairy products protected under the term "Morbier". The competent Paris court asked the ECJ to interpret whether the similar appearance could mislead consumers./cir/DP/stw (dpa)

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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