For the Court, failing to have adopted a specific legal name for a commodity, a State cannot prohibit the use of terms “usual” intended to designate a product. After the vote on a law in 2020, the government published two decrees to respond to an already long-standing demand from stakeholders in the animal sector, for whom terms like “vegetable ham”, « saucisse vegan » or “vegetarian bacon” can create confusion among consumers.
These two texts, taken in June 2022 then in February 2024, were immediately contested by players in the vegetarian and vegan products sector such as the Protéines France association, which defends the interests of the sector. They had both been suspended in summary proceedings by the Council of Statepending this opinion from the CJEU on their compliance with the European regulation.
The summary judge, in April, considered that the second decree, which provided for a ban from 1is May, “would cause serious and immediate harm to the interests of businesses” of plant productswhich notably should have urgently modified their packaging.
