"Western Saharan melons and cherry tomatoes must be correctly labeled to indicate their true territory of origin, but their import cannot be prohibited by France," ruled the Conseil d'État in its recent decision (No. 455088 of 28 January 2025). The court rejected the appeal by the Confédération Paysanne, which had sought a ban on Charentais melons and cherry tomatoes labeled as Moroccan despite being harvested in Western Sahara. This decision aligns with the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling of 4 October 2024, which confirmed that tomatoes and melons from Western Sahara must be explicitly labeled as such. "Any other designation would be misleading and could misinform consumers about the actual origin of these products."
The Confédération Paysanne had urged the French government to prohibit the import of cherry tomatoes and melons from Charente grown in Western Sahara and marketed as Moroccan. Arguing that this mislabelling violated EU consumer information regulations, the association received no response and escalated the matter to the Conseil d'État.
A member state cannot unilaterally ban imports for labeling non-compliance
When consulted by the Conseil d'État, the CJEU ruled (Case C-399/22) that an EU Member State cannot unilaterally ban the import of agricultural products from Western Sahara on the grounds that they are wrongly labeled as Moroccan. Such decisions fall under the European Union's common commercial policy and must be addressed at the EU level. The CJEU reaffirmed that Member States do not have the authority to impose national import bans based solely on labeling non-compliance.
Consequently, the Conseil d'État determined that the requested ban exceeded national jurisdiction and fell under the competence of European authorities. As a result, the ministers of economy and agriculture were not legally able to prohibit the import of these products into France, leading to the dismissal of the Confédération Paysanne's appeal.
Source: conseil-etat.fr
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