Inspection at a wine fair in a large supermarket near Clermont-l’Hérault: “misleading” labelling and other offences observed

While the wine fair season is in full swing in large and medium-sized stores, the fraud squad carried out an inspection on Thursday, September 19, in the aisles of the Lidl store in Saint-André-de-Sangonis, near Clermont-l’Hérault. An impromptu visit, in the presence of the prefect François-Xavier Lauch and the director of the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP) of Hérault, Yann Louguet.

“Intensify controls on agricultural products”

“The Ministers of Agriculture and Economy have made a commitment to farmers to intensify checks on agricultural products, including wine. Their number has tripled. We have carried out 155 since the beginning of the year. In 15% of cases, the rules for placing products on shelves were not respected. Recently, a store near Clermont-l’Hérault was subject to an administrative fine of €10,000.”indicated the State representative in the preamble to this inspection.

Main objective: to ensure that the presentation of products on the shelves does not mislead the consumer. However, at first glance, several anomalies appear in this wine fair. The wines have been classified by color and on the shelves, French and foreign vintages alternate: Crémant de Bourgogne, Prosecco, Champagne. “Normally, we should separate the different origins with clear markings”notes one of the fraud prevention officers. Right next to it, a bag of grapefruit rosé. “This wine-based flavored product should not be found in the wine section.” The carton bears the words “produced in France”, but the drink is made from wines from France and other countries of the European Union. Yet another trap for the consumer.

Among the wines in the catalog “very few” are on the shelves

For her part, an inspector ensures that the wines presented in the store’s brochure are actually on the shelves. She finds some “very little”. “We will continue our investigation by checking the delivery notes since the beginning of the wine fair period. It may happen that a reference mentioned in the catalog was never on the shelves in the store.” Claudine, a customer who came to buy wine, confirms: “Of the four products I had spotted, I only found one”. As the fraud prevention officer, she finds that the organization of the departments leaves something to be desired: “Everything is mixed together. But I am very attentive to the origin of the products, for wine as well as for cheeses and charcuterie.”

In this store, there is also a problem with the labeling. For this Saint-Chinian, the unit price that appears in large characters corresponds to a purchase of six bottles. The real unit price is only written in very small print, underneath. “This is a deceptive business practice”observes the inspector, who will sanction her with a fine. “We will estimate the profit that the store was able to make on this product from the delivery notes and the cash register rolls. The report will be sent, within a month or two, to the public prosecutor, to whom we propose a fine amount.”