Judgments on publications according to § 40 section 1a LFGB - In BAV Newsletter 01/2013
Jun 14, 2017 - hygiene
Judgments on publications according to § 40 section 1a LFGB - In BAV Newsletter 01/2013
According to § 40 paragraph 1a LFGB, which has been in force since September 1, 2012, the public must be automatically informed by authorities about exceedances of product limits (at least two independent investigations) or about products deemed hazardous to health. Additionally, until now, authorities have assumed that there is also an obligation to inform about deviations from hygiene requirements.
In several recent judgments, courts have questioned this obligation to inform about general hygiene deficiencies that are not related to a specific product. The Administrative Court Trier prohibited the publication of general hygiene deficiencies that were identified in a grocery store.
The planned publication would exceed the bounds of proportionality, as it would have profound consequences for the business and its employees that could not be reversed after publication. According to the judges, only the publication of specific food products in the sense of a product warning, and not the publication of other hygiene-related violations without reference to specific food products, is possible.
The Administrative Court Karlsruhe also expressed significant doubts in a preliminary urgent decision, questioning whether § 40 paragraph 1a LFGB empowers and obliges the authority to inform the public about general hygiene deficiencies. The necessary reference to a specifically affected food product was also highlighted.
Similar decisions pointing in the same direction have been made by the Administrative Courts in Berlin, Regensburg, and Würzburg. Therefore, it remains to be seen what leeway authorities will have in the future regarding the publication of observed general hygiene deficiencies in businesses.