Limit on warning obligation

A district court in Berlin, Germany, has ruled that cigarette-pack health warnings do not necessarily have to be visible when the packs are displayed in retail outlets, according to a story by Denis Bedoya for InfoSurHoy.com.
In making its ruling, the court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (the Federation of German Consumer Organizations) against a retailer.
It was alleged that the health warnings on cigarettes stacked on shelves were completely or partially obscured by mounts or stock cards.
The court emphasized that the EU directives on cigarette-pack warnings referred only to the cigarette packs themselves. And the same applied to the German law implementing the EU law.
There was no legal basis on which to control the presentation of the warnings in a retail environment.
It was noted, too, that it was, on a practical basis, hardly possible to show the warnings of all packs.