Glossary for legal topics

Infoletters summarise current, officially adopted publications of legal texts, resolutions, guidelines, recommendations and opinions in a compact format. Official corrections to such publications are also reported. Infoletters point out upcoming deadlines and explain existing transitional provisions. At a national level, One Globe only reports on legal texts at the federal level. The underlying documents are provided as PDF files for download or in the form of links.

A reminder points out that a deadline will expire in three months, which has already been addressed in an infoletter

A fact sheet summarises a specific legal topic in an easily understandable way, regardless of current publications and upcoming deadlines. A fact sheet is intended to provide an initial overview of the relevant field of law. 

Articles in the (legal) draft category provide information on officially published drafts of e.g. regulations, laws and directives. They are therefore articles on legal amendments that have not yet been adopted and can still be adapted in the course of the legislative procedure. A corresponding infoletter will be published when the final legal text is adopted.

One Globe reports exclusively on the first published draft. For the Swiss target market, the opening of the consultation procedure is reported on in particular.

Entries in the timeline provide concise information on upcoming deadlines as well as the entry into force or start of validity of legal acts. They briefly summarise the facts of the case and provide a link directly to the corresponding infoletter.

Timeline entries are created for deadlines that are six months in the future at the time of publication of a legal act.

Regulations are generally valid, binding in their entirety and directly applicable in all EU Member States. This means that a Regulation does not have to be transposed into national law in all Member States.

One example of an EU regulation is Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers (FIC Regulation)

Unlike regulations, directives are not directly applicable in the Member States. They must be nationally implemented by the individual Member States by a specified deadline. This means that a directive only becomes valid at national level when the Member States pass a law or regulation to implement the directive. Unlike resolutions, directives are generally valid.

If a European directive is not transposed into national law or is not transposed properly within the specified period, it may have a direct effect under certain circumstances.

One example of an EU directive that has already been transposed into national law is "Council Directive 2001/113/EC dated 20 December 2001 relating to jams, jellies, marmalades and chestnut purée intended for human consumption", which was transposed into German and Austrian law with the jam regulations. 

A decision is a legal act that is binding in its entirety. A decision that is intended for specific addressees (one or more EU Member States, one or more companies or individuals) is only binding for them.

An example of a decision is “Commission Implementation Decision (EU) 2023/2683 laying down rules for the application of Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the calculation, verification and reporting of data on recycled plastic content in single-use plastic beverage bottles”

Recommendations are not legally binding. They have no legal consequences but can provide guidance for the interpretation or content of EU law. 

An example of an EU recommendation is "Commission Recommendation (EU) 2022/495 on monitoring the presence of furan and alkylfurans in food". 

In an opinion, the EU institutions make a non-binding statement on a topic. It is therefore neither legally binding nor obligatory for the addressees. However, opinions can be used as an aid and are partly taken into account in the legislative process. Opinions can be issued by the main EU institutions (Commission, Council, Parliament) as well as by the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee.

One example is the opinion of the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) on hydroxyapatite (nano) dated March 2023.

Announcements do not contain any generally new requirements, but some clarifications/detailed definitions and are for supporting authorities and companies.

One example is the "Commission notice on the application of the provision of Article 26(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011."

Legal acts that have already been published may be affected by subsequent corrections. Frequent reasons for corrections are formal changes, spelling and linguistic mistakes (for instance deviations between the various language versions).

An example of a correction is correction OJ L 2023/90176 of Regulation (EU) 2023/915 on maximum levels for certain contaminants in foods dated 13 December 2023. 

Guidelines are non-legally binding documents intended to facilitate the implementation of the European regulations. These are frequently explanatory notes and other documents intended to provide practical and informal instructions on how to apply certain regulations.

For example, a guideline frequently used in the food industry is the "Guideline of the relevant authority on the definition of tolerances for nutritional values given on the label".

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is split up into the Court of Justice and the General Court. The CJEU interprets EU law and thus ensures that it is applied in the same way in all EU countries. It also rules on legal disputes between national governments and EU institutions. In addition, in certain cases, the Court of Justice can intervene on behalf of individuals, companies or organisations if they are of the opinion that an EU institution has violated their rights.

An example of judgment of the court is e.g. "Legal case C-195/14 on the presentation of the raspberry-vanilla tea adventure".

Both laws and regulations represent binding legal provisions. There are differences in the legislative procedure, i.e. how and by whom the legislation is enacted. However, regulations and laws basically have the same effect. As a rule, regulations are subordinate to the law and implement, supplement and complete the statutory provisions. 

Examples of laws in Germany are the Food and Feed Code (LFGB), in Austria the Food Safety and Consumer Protection Law (LMSVG) and in Switzerland the Foodstuffs Act (LMG).

These are not normal legal norms, as they are not intended for citizens, but only bind the administration. Administrative regulations are issued by higher-level administrative bodies, usually ministries. 

One example of this is the "General administrative regulation on principles for the implementation of the official monitoring of compliance with the provisions of food law, animal by-products law, wine law, feed law and tobacco law" (AVV Rüb). 

In the food industry, the guidelines of the German Food Code are particularly relevant. These guidelines are not legal norms and are therefore not legally binding. The guidelines can therefore be used in assessments and opinions as an interpretation aid, but not as a legal basis. Guidelines have the nature of objective expert opinions and are developed in cooperation by representatives of industry, food control, science and consumers. They reflect the general market perception of the composition and other properties of the products. They are a primary interpretation aid for answering the question of whether a product is misleading in terms of food legislation. 

One example of this are the guidelines for "pastries".

The Austrian Food Code (Codex Alimentarius Austriacus) specifies designations, definitions, methods of investigation and principles of assessment as well as guidelines for placing goods on the market (§ 76 Food Safety and Consumer Protection Law – LMSVG). From a legal perspective, the Austrian Food Code (ÖLMB) is to be classified as an "objective expert opinion". It is not a legal regulation in the strict sense. An example of this is Codex chapter A 5 "Labelling, presentation".

Instructions are mandatory orders that are issued by the Swiss Federal Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) to enforcement authorities regarding the supervision and coordination of the Food Law. One example of this is Instruction 2023/1 on the procedure for residues in the organic sector.

The Swiss Federal Food and Veterinary Office publishes recommendations and notifications of its position on specific issues by means of information letters. They are also used to provide information on the interpretation of food law provisions by the FVO and the canton chemists. An example is Information Letter 2022/3 on the free-range labelling of eggs and egg products.

Directives drawn up by the industry, such as the German Food Association, are just as important as the guidelines that provide support when it comes to determining a market perception. Economic directives are not legally binding either. However, they are to be regarded as considerable expert opinions on the existing public opinion of the food industry.

One example of such an economic directive is the Directive for the assessment of soups and sauces". 

We conduct daily research on official websites of legislators on legal changes at EU level in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 

Our legal research includes the Official Journal of the EU, the German Federal Law Gazette and the Austrian Federal Law Gazette. In addition, court judgements of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) are regularly searched. We also check whether guidelines, interpretation aids or opinions have been published by working groups of official bodies. These include, for example, the opinions of the working group of food chemistry experts of the German federal states and the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (ALS) or the working group of experts working in the field of food hygiene and food of animal origin (ALTS). In addition, we continuously review the recommendations of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and the current status of the Codex chapters of the Austrian Food Code (Codex Alimentarius Austriacus). 

We also regularly check the official websites of legislators to see whether new drafts of planned legislation have been published.