The Antitrust Authority jumps into the fray by speculating on the illegality of the NutriScore system and Yuka app, through which European consumers can easily identify the most nutritionally balanced foods.
Insight.
Ferrero asks, Coldiretti orders, Italian government executes
Ferrero has been waging a fierce battle against food nutrition profiles and color-coded summary nutrition labels for a dozen years. And its former president Francesco Fulci, former Italian ambassador to the United Nations, found his best ally in the head of Coldiretti, ‘the one in charge’ of agribusiness policy in Italy. (1)
Vincenzo Gesmundo, on 3/25/21, told his people that he had forced Minister Roberto Speranza to deny the positions expressed by his representative in Brussels. (2) Indeed, Professor Walter Ricciardi had dared to join the call of 419 scientists and 30 public health expert associations for the EU to adopt NutriScore labeling.
The Italian government included Ferrero director Paolo Mascarino in its international representation-at the Codex Alimentarius Commission for Food Labeling (CCFL), 9/27-1/10/21. In addition to the deputy director of Italian Food Union. Not even any consumer representatives. (3) Mario Draghi then spoke in the House, on 20.10.21, declaring that ‘the government is fully aware of the seriousness that the introduction of Nutriscore may constitute for our agri-food production chain and fully committed to its protection.’ (4)
Antitrust, initiation of investigation into NutriScore and Yuka
Antitrust-the Competition and Market Authority (AGCM)-appears to have followed political shilling orders. Declaring, on 22.11.21, the opening of an investigation against eight operators who placed the NutriScore logo on their food labels, as well as on the young French company that runs the Yuka app (5).
The inquiry into the NutriScore – almost like a joke–involves four Italians (GS S.p.a, Carrefour Italia S.p.a., Pescanova Italia S.r.l., Valsoia S.p.A.), two French (Regime Dukan S.a.s., Diet Lab S.a.s.), one Englishman (Weetabix Ltd.) and one German candy manufacturer.
‘The fear, the Authority points out, is that the NutriScore label, as well as the scores and ratings provided by the app, in the absence of adequate warnings, will be wrongly perceived as absolute assessments of the healthiness of a particular product.’ (6)
AGCM, fears and carelessness
It is curious, an understatement, that the AGCM did not instead express ‘fear’ toward junk food influencer marketing practices aimed at children and minors. Ignoring UNICEF recommendations (2020) on the need to protect the youngest children from covert persuasion techniques and harmful foods-and the writer’s timely reports on a number of actual cases. (7)
Antitrust today is concerned about ‘the criterion by which alternatives are ordered and proposed to the consumer‘ on a free app like Yuka. After filing our complaints about hundreds of products for sale–on Amazon and other ecommerce sites–without reporting the information essential to identify their characteristics (8,9).
Rules
AGCM’s policy action in support of Coldiretti has already reached a level of arbitrariness bordering on abuse in recent years. His interventions in the Lazio Regional Administrative Court-to uphold a competition-distorting public act on the management of aid in agriculture-were censured for lack of standing. And the act in question, adopted by the director of AGEA in a conflict of interest (with Coldiretti’s magic circle) censured by the European Commission but not also by Minister Stefano Patuanelli, was annulled in three separate judgments. (10)
Instead, the rules to be applied to the cases under consideration are set out in the Food Information Regulation, reg. EU 1169/11, which simply:
– does not apply to app operators such as Yuka but only to food handlers, from farm to fork, including catering (Article 1.3),
– does not preclude the use of optional information such as that offered by NutriScore (Article 36). Even regardless of its formal adoption in France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.
Interim conclusions
In danger is not the made in Italy but the rule of law. Freedoms of opinion and information first and foremost. The governance of public institutions and bodies. Free movement of goods, the first pillar on which the European Union rests. Incidentally, freedom of enterprise.
Yuka’s success speaks for itself. 2 million people in Italy have downloaded in 12 months a nice app that helps people choose food and cosmetics based on logical criteria. NutriScore score, presence of suspicious additives, organic foods.
The meaning of NutriScore is equally clear. Helping populations appreciate the most nutritionally balanced products through the efforts of university researchers and clinicians in a public institution pursuing the common good. Its appreciation by IARC comes from a scientific review of its effectiveness.
Liberté, #égalité, fraternité
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Dario Dongo. NutriScore, Ferrero and Coldiretti against all. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 7/16/21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/nutriscore-ferrero-e-coldiretti-contro-tutti
(2) ‘Everything can be remedied, as we did in recent days by forcing-after a denial statement from Minister Speranza-the Italian delegate Ricciardi, who was oriented in favor of NutriScore, to change his position in Brussels. But attention and vigilance had been lacking from before, just as adequate information to our members and especially local stakeholders, who then also interact with the national parliament, had been lacking from before. Compared with all other representative organizations, we travel with a dual engine. The one centrally located in the confederation and the one present at a widespread level in the territory: it is time to send it full steam ahead!!!’ (Vincenzo Gesmundo, speech to Coldiretti directors, 3/25/21)
(3) Dario Dongo. Codex Alimentarius, the NutriScore and the WHO guidelines. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 9/29/21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/codex-alimentarius-il-nutriscore-e-le-linee-guida-who
(4) Draghi, aware of the risks of Nutriscore, we protect the supply chain. ANSA. 10/20/21, https://bit.ly/3xeKYf8
(5) PS12131-PS12183-PS12184-PS12185-PS12186-PS12187 – Initiated investigations into the NutriScore billing system and Yuka app. AGCM, comunicato stampa 22.11.21, https://www.agcm.it/media/comunicati-stampa/2021/11/PS12131-PS12183-PS12184-PS12185-PS12186-PS12187
(6) Marta Strinati. Yuka, the app that unmasks unbalanced foods, arrives in Italy. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 9/22/20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/arriva-in-italia-yuka-la-app-che-smaschera-gli-alimenti-squilibrati
(7) Dario Dongo. Influencer marketing, our report to the Antitrust. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 7/25/20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/influencer-marketing-la-nostra-segnalazione-all-antitrust
(8) Dario Dongo. Amazon, new complaints to Antitrust and ICQRF. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 7.2.19, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/amazon-nuove-denunce-a-antitrust-e-icqrf
(9) Dario Dongo. Everli, Carrefour, the ecommerce that deceives. Stoned prices and misleading labels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 11/28/20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/everli-carrefour-l-ecommerce-che-inganna-prezzi-sballati-ed-etichette-fuorvianti
(10) Dario Dongo. TAR Lazio’s trio on CAAs. Freelancers readmitted. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 11.6.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/tris-del-tar-lazio-sui-caa-riammessi-i-liberi-professionisti
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
