France suspends demand for ‘settlement’ product labeling

France reportedly suspends insistence on special labeling for Judea and Samaria products after lawsuit calling the practice discriminatory.
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Eiffel Tower in Paris, France

Eiffel Tower in Paris, France – Flash 90

French authorities reportedly have suspended their insistence on special labeling for Judea and Samaria products following a lawsuit alleging that the practice is discriminatory.

The France office of Amnesty International complained about the suspension in a statement Wednesday.

“Instead of complying with the request to end imports [from the Judea and Samaria], the government has chosen to roll back and suspend the demand for labeling,” the human rights group wrote.

The Israel Broadcasting Corp., or Kan, reported independently on Tuesday about the suspension of the measure, which was adopted in 2016.

That year, the French Economy Ministry’s General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Prevention published an advisory circular requiring retailers to use the word “colonies,” French for “settlements,” to specify goods originating in Israeli communities in the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.

In 2015, the European Commission adopted binding regulations requiring such labeling. However, the commission has no recourse against countries that do not apply the regulations and no lawsuit has been brought to date against a vendor who declined to apply them. France’s major supermarket chains apply no special labeling for settlement goods. Israel has vocally protested the passing of these regulations.

Earlier this year The Lawfare Project, a pro-Israel think tank, initiated a legal action challenging the labeling requirements on behalf of Psagot Winery LTD, an Israeli vineyard whose European distributors are subject to the labeling rules.

In France, the legal action in May prompted the Council of State, which is the government’s legal adviser, to ask the European Court of Justice for its opinion on the legal status of labeling.

France suspends demand for ‘settlement’ product labeling

France reportedly suspends insistence on special labeling for Judea and Samaria products after lawsuit calling the practice discriminatory.
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