A ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court confirmed that the use of peel-off labels is, in principle, allowed and that there is no obligation to include all mandatory information on one top layer of the label [1]. The use of several label layers will not lead to hiding mandatory information if the top label indicates where the remaining information can be found. Earlier, domestic interpretations ruled out such a possibility.
Background of the case
State Provincial Sanitary Inspector (the Authority) ordered a company to modify the label of a dietary supplement so that the mandatory information [2] was on the top of the label.
The inspection concerned a peel-off label. The outer layer contained some of the mandatory information and the indication that: “Ingredients, recommended daily allowance, warnings and important information can be found inside the peel-off label! Read the entire label!” together with a curved arrow indicating more layers.
In the Authority's view, the use of such a label meant that the mandatory information was not readily available to consumers.
Legislation
In the case of packaged food, the mandatory information must be provided directly on the packaging or on an accompanying label. Such information must not be hidden, obscured, limited or interrupted in any way by any other prints, illustrations or other material.
According to the Voivodship Administrative Court [3], what is meant here is hiding or covering up mandatory information with a print, illustration or material other than the label itself (or its part) on which the information is provided, and the design of the label must not prevent the information from being readily accessible.
If the top layer of the label contains information as to what kind of data is contained on the next layer of the label, and this information is accompanied by a recommendation (with an exclamation mark underlining the importance of this information) to read the whole label and a graphic mark (arrow) indicating where the next layer of the label can be accessed, the mandatory information contained on the next layer of the label cannot be considered obscured, and certainly not hidden if it can be easily peeled off and replaced without damaging the label.
The court recalled that not all mandatory information is required to be included in a single field of vision. Only the information indicated in Article 9(1)(a), (e) and (k) of the Regulation is to be contained in such a field.
The position of the Voivodship Administrative Court was confirmed by the judgement of the Supreme Administrative Court, which dismissed the cassation appeal of the Authority.
Earlier interpretations
According to an earlier position of the Chief Sanitary Inspector [4], a peel-off label on food with mandatory information inside the label was considered not to meet the requirements of the Regulation. The judgement in this case extends the possibilities of using peel-off labels on the market and renders the previous position partially obsolete.
[1] Judgement of the Supreme Administrative Court of 15 February 2024, ref. II GSK 678/23
[2] Article 9(1) of Regulation 1169/2011 of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers (the Regulation)
[3] Judgement of the Voivodship Administrative Court of 1 February 2023, ref. II SA/Rz 926/22
[4] Chief Sanitary Inspector's position on peel-off labelling