CJEU Asked to Join the “Raspberry-Vanilla Adventure” by Federal Court of Appeal

Food packaging displaying pictures of fruits are increasingly troubling German courts. The crucial question is usually: Does the depicted fruit have to be an ingredient or is it sufficient that it represents or suggests the taste of the food? After all, how else could a marketer illustrate the product’s fruit flavour on-pack other than by photos, paintings or drawings? Whether such pictures are deceptive and misleading on mandatorily labelled food packaging – together with additional information as to taste and flavourings – will now have to be decided by the Court of Justice of the EU upon a referral from the Federal Court of Appeal. The essential features of the German Court’s decision shall be sketched here in brief.