Obligation to indicate total price not in conflict with freedom to conduct business
30-06-2016 Print this page
Obligation to indicate total price and price per weight unit on labels is not in conflict with the freedom to conduct a business ex article 6(1) TEU and article 15(1) and 16 of the Charter.
Limitations to freedom of conducting a business proportionate to aims Regulation.
39. As regards to the necessity of such legislation, the EU legislature could legitimately consider that legislation providing for the mere affixing of prices on shelves would not achieve the objectives pursued in a way as effective as Article 5(4)(b) of Regulation No 543/2008, since solely the indication of the total price and the price per weight unit enables, in the case of products whose packaging units may not have the same weight, adequate consumer information to be guaranteed. Such an obligation does not, moreover, appear disproportionate to the aims pursued, in particular as the indication of the total price and the price per weight unit, laid down by Article 5(4) of Regulation No 543/2008, is only one part of the information having to be included on the pre-packaging or on a label attached thereto under that provision.
40. Consequently, the interference with the applicant in the main proceedings’ freedom to conduct a business is, in the present case, proportionate to the objectives pursued.
Obligation to provide information on labels of the same article concerning the marketing standards for meat and poultry is not in conflict with the principle of non-discrimination ex article 40(2) TFEU.
Compared products belong to different agricultural sectors
49. As a result, a comparison of the technical rules and procedures adopted in order to regulate the various sectors of the market cannot constitute a valid basis for the purpose of proving the complaint of discrimination between dissimilar products which are subject to different rules (see, to that effect, judgment of 28 October 1982 in Lion and Others, 292/81 and 293/81, EU:C:1982:375, paragraph 24).
IPPT20160630, CJEU, Lidl v Freistaat Sachsen
C-134/15 - ECLI:EU:C:2016:498
