## Facts

- Unilever Italia SpA contracted to supply olive oil to Central Food SpA, a retailer.
- After delivery, Central Food refused to pay, asserting the oil’s labeling did not comply with Italian olive-oil labeling rules.
- Italy adopted those labeling rules without complying with EU procedural requirements requiring advance notification of draft “technical regulations” and observance of a standstill period before adoption.
- The Milan Magistrate’s Court, hearing Unilever’s civil claim for payment, referred questions to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on the effect of that procedural breach in a private-law dispute.

## Issues

1. Whether national olive-oil labeling requirements qualify as “technical specifications” (and thus “technical regulations”) that trigger EU notification and standstill duties.
2. Whether, in civil proceedings between private parties, a national court must treat as inapplicable a technical regulation adopted in breach of the EU notification or standstill obligations.

## Decision

- The ECJ held that product labeling requirements can constitute “technical specifications” and therefore “technical regulations” subject to the EU notification and standstill procedure.
- The ECJ held that failure to comply with the notification or standstill obligations is a substantial procedural defect that renders the resulting technical regulation inapplicable.
- The ECJ held that this inapplicability may be relied upon in proceedings between private parties, requiring the national court to refuse to apply the defective national rule.
- As applied to the dispute, Central Food could not invoke the improperly adopted labeling rule to justify nonpayment.

## Legal Principles

- National rules laying down product characteristics, including labeling requirements, fall within the concept of “technical specifications” regardless of the grounds for their adoption.
- Breach of EU notification or standstill duties governing technical regulations is a substantial procedural defect that requires national courts to disapply the offending national measure.
- Disapplication of a procedurally defective national technical regulation may occur in private litigation without treating the EU directive as imposing direct obligations on an individual.

## Conclusion

The ECJ required national courts to refuse to apply product-labeling “technical regulations” adopted without required notification or in breach of a standstill period, and it permitted private parties to invoke that inapplicability in ordinary contract litigation.


Unilever Italia SpA v. Cent. Food SpA, Case C-443/98, 2000 E.C.R. I-7535 (E.C.J. 2000)