On March 15, the French Administrative Court granted urgent petitions filed by the two applicants Der Gruene Punkt Duales System Deutschland GmbH and PRO Europe Sprl. The petitioners` applications have put the enforcement of the Decree on misleading labeling with regard to the separate collection of product waste from November 30, 2020 on hold. All enforcement action is suspended until the judicial clarification of the legality of the new requirements.

According to the labeling decree, as of April 1, a penalty will apply (“malus system”) if packaging is labeled with symbols that may confuse consumers with regard to waste separation. The marking of packaging with the Green Dot symbol would also fall under this regulation.

The two applicant companies justified the urgent applications by arguing that the new legal regulation leads to unjustified discrimination against the “Grüner Punkt” trademark and thus, in addition to disadvantaging the Green Dot take-back systems in the respective national markets, also hinders the import and export of products within the European Union.

Until the legality of the law is clarified, the malus regulation, which will come into force on April 1, 2021, will now remain suspended.