Stiftung Warentest must first accept after decades a serious legal defeat. The chocolate-armed against Ritter Sport, the Higher Regional Court of Munich dismissed on Tuesday the appointment of the Foundation against the judgment of the first instance.
In the Court of Appeal decision ordered the Presiding Judge Eva Spangler, among other things, the product testers should not spread further, the walnut chocolate would because deception may not be sold (document number 18U516 / 14 pre) the assertion.
The chocolate company responded facilitated. “The decision is right,” said company lawyer Thomas Seeger. “Even Stiftung Warentest must not set arbitrary assertions in the world that have no basis.”
In the review, the Foundation had stated that it had in the variety “Ritter Sport Whole Hazelnuts” the “chemically produced flavoring piperonal detected”. This claim they have still not occupied, Seeger said. An appeal against the decision before the Federal Court was not possible, said the Court of Appeal with.
The procedure for the preliminary injunction is finished. However, there could be a second method in the main, in which the core question needs to be clarified whether the controversial flavoring by the standards of the relevant EU Directive is to be classified as natural or not.
Still other steps?
The product testers are kept that door open on Tuesday. “The Foundation will now wait for the reasoning of the Court and then decide on further steps,” she said. May give in the testers apparently not.
“So far, the company Alfred Ritter and flavors supplier Symrise AG wooden Minden, the actual production process of the flavoring piperonal not disclosed in essential points, “they said. Clear is merely that Symrise piperonal in turn refer themselves via a third party. “Moreover, where, by whom and how it was manufactured, contradictory statements were made,” said the foundation laid.
Even knights can still dispute the continue to drive – with an action for damages. “For false statements of fact, a compensation can be claimed as a rule,” said the Lebensmittelrechtler Ansgar Kluge of the firm Horak Lawyers in Hanover. Whether it comes to leaving a spokeswoman for Knights initially open.
In general, it is considered difficult to demonstrate a quantifiable damage in such cases. At least the image damage was striking, said the spokeswoman. You’ve got after the test report “wash baskets of mail” from consumers, including many negative. Employee would have felt threatened. “The more we look forward to the judgment of the Higher Regional Court of Munich,” she said.
For products tester is what the dispute about more than full Nut plates and flavorings. The Swabian family company is on the verge of the grind to be impregnable fortress applicable legal Stiftung Warentest – and so is their livelihood in question. Supported by a huge consumer confidence in the test results, the Berlin Foundation has been an extremely strong position.
Search companies reluctant to dispute
Most companies waive after negative test results from the outset to legal action. In year 2000 products tested the lawyers of the Foundation must only carry four to five processes. For great is the fear of the company with embarrassment and negative publicity.
In addition, the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) had strengthened the legal position of the Foundation in 1975 massively with a landmark judgment . At that time it was about bindings. After the verdict, the test method must be accurate and “objective”. The latter is by authoritative legal opinion to understand so that even the “attempts at objectivity” is sufficient.
The following reviews are from tests by the common opinion dishes covered by the freedom of expression. Almost 40 years later, for the first time suggests a U-turn. In the Knights battle already had the first instance, the Landgericht München, explains, of a fair Warentest could be no question.
“was based, the test result namely only on a too narrow interpretation of the EU-flavor-regulation “, it said. The tester had a “Poor” missed the variety “Ritter Whole Hazelnuts” on the grounds that the piperonal was mistakenly not declared as artificial sweetener. Since this is misleading, the panels would not have to be sold.
However, the facts are not nearly as clear. Piperonal occurs in natural variants in plants, such as pepper, dill or black locust, but only in small amounts. Supplier Symrise had assured in the first instance on oath, be piperonal tribe still from natural sources.
tester should carefully judge
Sceptics hold that widespread substance – the lies, for example, in cocoa, cosmetics, soaps and tobacco products – could not be obtained in sufficient quantities from plants, but come from chemistry laboratories. Of these, the Foundation was also assumed type of poultry in the knight square “Whole Hazelnuts”.
That is after the courts consider the so far with the dispute have addressed the problem: The Foundation had merely asserted due to a conclusion, Ritter had used an artificial flavor. Because of the “incredible weight” of the test sentences for consumers and manufacturers would have the testers their words weigh carefully admonished Judge Spangler at the beginning of the meeting on Tuesday.
For consumers, the legal dispute is actually not directly relevant. Piperonal – whether in the laboratory or plant flower – is considered safe. The manufacturing process of flavorings anyway often do not correspond to popular notions of “natural” or “artificial”. So declared as natural flavors are often used in laboratories using bacteria or fungi produced.
false are, however, claims that the most popular strawberry flavored using molds on sawdust will produce, recently told the Association of the flavoring industry. Rather, among other things, oil from the wood of Ceylon cinnamon tree will be used. “Of course you can make strawberry aroma of strawberries,” says the industry. But the amount was not enough to meet the demand.
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