Wine Law

8 primarily achieved by providing mandatory label information (Art. 9), such as stating that all ingredients and composition of a food item must show on the label. While this approach seems to pose the risk of information overload, there is also the issue of freedom of speech granted to food manufacturers, which may have a further impact on the effectiveness of the information 23 . In other words, obscurity of some food ingredients and advertising claims on labels certainly do not help customers in making an “informed choice”. It is certainly true that Regulation 1169/2011 sets certain limits to mandatory information, which should only be restricted to what may be considered necessary by the average consumer (Art. 4); however, additional items of information may be added voluntarily by producers 24 , which may add to the consumer’s confusion. Overall, as scholars have highlighted, consumer attention is a limited resource 25 and is also subject to “selective nudging” by producers wishing to address consumer behaviour 26 . While the dilemma of the EU legislator is understandable, regulation on food labelling is largely unsatisfactory. Consumers are likely to be loaded with unnecessary and/or confusing information that may be correct, while producers’ claims – especially when visually attractive – may end up being prevalent from the consumer’s perspective when compared to mandatory information. As such, a level playing field should likely be considered: relevant and unbiased information should be textually and visually placed at the same level and with the same characteristics with producers’ claims 27 . This should have no impact on freedom of speech, while simultaneously preventing producers from taking advantage of consumers’ cognitive biases. 23 E. VANDER Z EE , Legal Limits on Food Labelling Law: Comparative Analysis of the EU and USA , inWageningen Working Paper, Law and Governance, 2015/1. 24 K. P URNHAGEN , Mapping Private Regulation-Classification , Market Access and Market Closure Policy and Law’s Response , in Journal of World Trade, 2015. 25 E. VAN H ARPEN & H. VAN T RIP , EU Health Claims: A Consumer Perspective , in Regulating and Managing Food Safety in the EU , ed. by H. Bremmers & K. Purnhagen, Berlin, 2018. 26 EU Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, Food Labelling for Consumers. EU Law, Regulation and Policy Options , PE 608.871, April 2019. Some studies have also stressed that visual information is more effective than text information, especially when consumers are shopping and their time is hence limited (T. L. C HILDERS &M. J. H OUSTON , Conditions for a Picture-Superiority Effect on Consumer Memory , in Journal of Consumer Research, 1984). 27 EU Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, Food Labelling for Consumers. EU Law, Regulation and Policy Options , PE 608.871, April 2019.