Produce Labels and the Circular Economy: CJEU interprets "Packaging" in Interfel (C-772/24)

On August 1, the CJEU delivered an interesting judgment in Interfel (C-772/24), which could assist in promoting sustainable consumption. 

Photo by amoon ra on Unsplash

In an effort to combat waste and support circular economy, French law prohibited the placing of labels directly on fruit or vegetables sold on French territory, unless the labels were home-compostable and made of bio-sourced materials (para 8). The idea was straightforward: consumers could more easily and sustainably dispose of spoiled fruit or vegetables. (Who has not spent hours of their life removing annoyingly sticky, unwilling-to-just-let-go labels from produce?) 

However, the question arose whether this national rule complied with Directive 94/62 on packaging and packaging waste. Article 18 of the Directive requires the Member States to permit the sale of products on their territory if their packaging complies with the Directive. This provision prevents Member States from imposing additional restrictions that could hinder the internal market.

The CJEU began by emphasising the Directive's environmental objectives: to reduce the impact of packaging and packaging waste on the environment, covering all packaging placed on the market (para 12). To assess whether the French measures complied with EU law, the Court examined the Directive's definition of "packaging". The term must be interpreted broadly (para 13), but still fulfil one of the functions set out in the Directive, namely: "containment, protection, handling, delivery and presentation of goods" (para 15). Packaging must also fall into one of the three categories: "sales packaging, grouped packaging or transport packaging" (para 17). Ancillary elements integrated into packaging are also considered packaging (para 20). Annex I to the Directive provides illustrative examples of packaging, including "labels hung directly on or attached to a product" (para 21).

In answering the national court's question, the CJEU stressed that, to qualify as packaging, a product must meet the above criteria (para 25). Specifically, it must perform at least one of the three main packaging functions: containment/protection, handling/delivery, or presentation. Labels on fruit and vegetables are typically smaller than the produce itself and therefore unlikely to provide containment or protection (para 28). Nor are they generally used for handling or delivery purposes (para 29). The remaining question was whether labels serve a presentation function - a matter the Court noted could depend on the specific context/ label (para 30).

In conclusion, the CJEU indicated that France may impose additional sustainable requirements for such labels, but only where the labels do not perform any of the three functions assigned to packaging under EU law.

The Digital Services Act in action: combatting illegal and unsafe products

With the development of online marketplaces, combating illegal and unsafe products reaching EU consumers is not easy. In recent years, online platforms such as Temu, which offer heavily discounted goods that often directly ship from China, have become popular with consumers.

Temu first came under the 'spotlight' when BEUC- The European Consumer Organisation and national consumer protection organisations initiated an enforcement campaign against Temu (see our report here).

Then, in May 2024, the EU Commission designated Temu as a Very Large Online Platform under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which conferred obligations on Temu to assess and mitigate any systemic risks stemming from its services. 

Following this, in October 2024, the Commission opened formal proceedings to assess whether Temu may have breached the DSA in areas linked to the sale of illegal products, the potentially addictive design of the service, the systems used to recommend purchases to users, as well as data access for researchers. In July 2025, the Commission published preliminary findings that Temu was indeed in breach of the obligation under the DSA to properly assess the risks of illegal products being disseminated on its marketplace, and continues investigation in the other identified areas of concern.

Testing by consumer organisations has revealed that many parcels from Temu and similar online platforms contain products that are not compliant with EU consumer law and are even potentially harmful to consumers. These include, for example, clothing that contains banned chemicals, phone chargers that can explode, and balloons for children that contain illegal chemicals.

In an interesting and informative interview for Deutsche Welle, Augustin Reyna, Director General of BEUC, explains these developments (see here).