Purely plant based products may in principle not be marketed under designations for milk products

SALES DESCRIPTIONS

Purely plant based products may not be marketed under terms as ‘milk’ and other designations that are reserved exclusively for milk products by Regulation No 1308/2013: even if those terms are expanded upon by clarifying or descriptive terms indicating the plant origin of the product at issue, unless that product is listed in Annex I to Decision 2010/791.

"52. Having regard to all of the foregoing considerations, the answer to the questions referred is that Article 78(2) and Annex VII, Part III to Regulation No 1308/2013 must be interpreted as precluding the term ‘milk’ and the designations reserved by that regulation exclusively for milk products from being used to designate a purely plant based product in marketing or advertising, even if those terms are expanded upon by clarifying or descriptive terms indicating the plant origin of the product at issue, unless that product is listed in Annex I to Decision 2010/791."

IPPT20170614, CJEU, VSW v TofuTown

C‑422/16 - ECLI:EU:C:2017:458