Health & environment

Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009[1], repealing Council Directive 91/414[2], entered into force on June 14, 2011. This Regulation concerns the authorization of plant protection products in commercial form and their placing on the market, use and control within the EU. It also includes provisions that apply to the components of such products. Council Directive 91/414 made […]

Until the adoption of Community Regulation 1924/2006[1], the assessment of health claims in relation to the labeling, presentation or advertising of food products was most of the time carried out a posteriori. In France, the Direction Générale de la Concurrence, Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and […]

Since several years, the EU authorities have been striving to improve the regulatory framework governing chemicals in order to gain a better knowledge of chemical substances used within the EU and to ensure a higher level of protection of human health and the environment. In this context, two main regulations have been adopted: The REACH […]

In a judgment dated September 2, 2010, the Investigating Chamber of the Toulouse Court of Appeals upheld the full dismissal rendered on January 30, 2009 by the investigating judge of Saint-Gaudens in the publicized so-called “bee case”. More than seven years have elapsed since Regent, a seed-coating product successively owned by Bayer CropScience and BASF […]

The European REACH Regulation[1] (originally made up of more than 850 pages!) dated December 18, 2006 entered into force on June 1, 2007. Pursuant to this Regulation, chemical substances as such, used in the preparation of a mixture, or contained in an article in quantities of 1 tonne or above per year must now be […]

The Conseil d’Etat (Highest Administrative Court) opportunely recalled quite recently that, in the absence of scientific certainty, the precautionary principle cannot be applied without taking into account the economic consequences associated with the withdrawal or the suspension of a market authorization. In the case at hand, the owner of the anti-inflammatory drug Ketum filed a […]