Giorgio Rusconi, Giulia Cozzolino

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 16 (2021), Issue 2, Page 112 - 116

This paper takes as its starting point a recent and controversial ruling by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) against Lidl Italia S.r.l., producer of dried pasta under the ‘ItaliAmo’ and ‘Combino’ brands. The ruling is an opportunity to take a closer look at the current state of implementation and interpretation of the rules governing the origin of foodstuffs and the possibility of claiming a given origin when presenting food and drinks on the market. In this context, it is not always easy to reconcile the customs regulations on the origin of goods (so-called ‘made in’), the principles of consumer protection and the specific rules of the sector relating to food and, more recently, to the origin of the primary ingredient.

Giorgio Rusconi, Giulia Cozzolino

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 16 (2021), Issue 4, Page 303 - 308

Under its Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT), the European Commission has been reviewing existing Union legislation in selected policy fields through ‘fitness checks'. Fitness checks aim to keep current legislation ‘fit for purpose’ by identifying excessive burdens, overlaps, gaps, inconsistencies or obsolete measures, which may have appeared over time since the Union legislation was first adopted and implemented. On 2 October 2013, the Commission decided to carry out a comprehensive evidence-based policy evaluation of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 on General Food Law for the entire food and feed sector under the REFIT. The outcome has been Regulation (EU) 1381/2019, the so-called Transparency Regulation, which started to be implemented in March 2021.