France again suspends ban on the use of meat names for products of plant origin

At the request of French companies, the French Council of State judge has suspended a new decree due to come into force on May 1 prohibiting the use of butcher's and delicatessen terms such as "steak" to denote products containing vegetable proteins. The interim relief judge considers that there are serious doubts about the legality of this ban. When examining an appeal against a first decree on the same subject this doubt had led the Council of State to ask the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in July 2023 about the possibility for a Member State to adopt national measures regulating or prohibiting this type of designation. Pending a response from the CJEU, the interim relief judge has suspended the new decree on the grounds that it would also seriously and immediately harm the interests of manufacturers who exclusively sell this type of product. In a decree published on June 29, 2022, the Government prohibited the use of the terms "meat" or "charcuterie" to ...