THE’Italy ended up in the sights of the decisions of infringement periodically adopted by European Commission to intervene against the Member States that do not comply with the obligations sanctioned by EU law. The decisions taken in Brussels range between different sectors and areas and have the purpose of protecting the benefit of citizens and businesses, with Italy that in this case is put in default for the failure to comply with the rules concerning the free movement of goods provided for by the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
It is a problem with the labels of the products linked to the Shrinkralingwith the government led by Giorgia Meloni Which will now have two months to get back in order and close the infringement procedure contested by the EU.
The default of Italy
The legal action launched by the European Commission against Italy refers, as mentioned above, to the failure to comply with the general EU regulations on the free movement of goods. The first step of this procedure has provided for the commission by the commission of a letter of constitution in Mora to Italy (Infr 2025 – 4000) in which it is emphasized that the Member State did not foresee the problem of “incompatibility of its labeling obligations with articles 34 to 36 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (tfue)”.
Entering more specifically, “Italy has introduced the obligation to affix an ‘on consumer productsSpecific indication which informs the situations in which a product, while maintaining the previous packaging unchanged, has undergone a reduction in the quantity and a related increase in the price per unit “.
“Although the Commission recognizes the importance of informing consumers regarding these changes – reads the letter of default of Italy – theobligation to report this information directly on each product concerned it does not seem proportionate. The national labeling requirements represent a significant obstacle to the internal market and seriously compromise the free movement of goods “.
What does the Anti Shrinkflation label includes
The standard, definitively approved in the Senate at the end of 2024, provides for a new one Article 15 bis of Consumer Code entitled Provisions on the repositioning of pre -packaged products. By virtue of this intervention, the producers would have the obligation to indicate that a “package contains a lower product of X (unit of measurement) compared to the previous quantity” during the six months from the first mass on the market of the new format.
What Italy must do now
By virtue of the above, the EU Commission “believes that the Italian authorities have not provided sufficient evidence of the proportionality of the measurementas other less restrictive options are available (for example the supply of the same information near the products concerned) “.
Italy would therefore be defect in the European directive on Transparency of the single market (Directive (EU) 2015/1535). The sending of the letter of constitution in default by the Commission provides that Giorgia Meloni’s executive now has 2 months of time “to answer and remedy the reported deficiencies”. In addition to this time limit and “in the absence of a satisfactory response”, the European organ “will be able to decide to issue a motivated opinion”.
The intervention on Shrinkflation in Italy
The decision of the EU Commission comes after in the Milleproroghe decree had been postponed to six months in Italy the entry into force of the obligations provided for by the law against the Shrinkflationprecisely to avoid infringement procedures. More specifically, the obligation to indicate on the label a reduction in the weight of the product had been postponed to 1 October 2025.
The Government had decided to move differently than the expected Roadmp and comply with the Tris procedure, or the process to follow when the rules that can affect the European single market are changing. This was not enough to avoid the letter of the Commission.
