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Legislation
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There are many EU legislative and regulatory developments, apart from customs and taxation issues, that could impact upon the industry and need to be monitored and managed, including health and consumer affairs issues, product regulation, environmental challenges, etc. Details of legislative and regulatory matters, other than tax and customs issues, relevant to the industry can be found here.
Rules on nominal quantities for pre-packed products (Pack Sizes Directive)
In October 2004, the Commission published a draft directive amending the 'Rules on nominal quantities for pre-packed products'. The proposal included a provision to establish mandatory bottle sizes for wines and spirits that can be sold within the EU.
Following representation from the ETRC, the European Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee's Rapportuer, Jacques Toubon MEP, introduced an amendment calling for an exemption for sales in duty free shops for consumption outside the EU. Toubon's report, was approved at the Parliament's Plenary session on 2nd February 2006 by a wide majority and on 4th December 2006, the Competitiveness Council formally adopted its common position on the Commission?s revised proposal that retained the duty free exemption under Article 1.2.
On 21st May 2007, the Competitiveness Council reached final political agreement on the directive and the new rules entered into force on 11 April 2009. However, duty free operators will be allowed to continue to offer exclusive bottle sizes to travellers departing the EU.
Full details of the new directive can be found at the EU Commission's Enterprise and Industry website.
Food Information to Consumers
The European Commission proposal for a regulation that intends to re-cast and to simplify existing Community and national legislation on the labelling of food was published on 07 February 2008. The Commission proposals include mandatory nutritional information "in the principle field of vision (front of pack)" and that "mandatory food information shall appear in a language easily understood by the consumers of the Member States where a food is marketed".
These proposals would restrict the trade's ability to merchandise high quality confectionery and other food products in duty free shops as many products are impulse purchases, primarily for gift giving, and presentation is the primary selling point. The industry is therefore seeking an exemption from the front of pack labelling for gift giving products and further consideration of the language requirements.
The report by Rapporteur Renate Sommer MEP for the European Parliament on the Commission proposals was eventually adopted on first-reading in the Plenary session on 16 June. Both of the ETRC’s amendments on excluding gifting products from the mandatory front of pack (FOP) nutrition labelling and for the use of a single language for labelling of food products supplied to travel retail outlets across the EU were adopted.
We will now need to work with EU Member States and the Commission to ensure these amendments are retained as the Regulation progresses through to the Council of Ministers and second-reading at the European Parliament over the coming months, but it is anticipated that there will be no final agreement reached until mid-2011.
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