Agcm fines online sale of not notified food supplements

The Italian antitrust authority (AGCM) has fined three companies located in Portugal, Slovenia and in the United Kingdom for a total of 400.000 euros by three sentences published last June. The reason behind the sentences is the online sale of food supplements without the relevant notification to the Ministry of Health on websites in Italian.

Following a report of the ESSNA (the European body specialised on sport nutrition), the AGCM investigated the sale of food supplements on the web and identified the concerned supplements. These products are sold for muscle building up and improvement of sport performance, for which the AGCM has found that the notification to the Ministry of Health as missing, although mandatory for the sale of food supplements in Italy.

This way of acting was considered as misleading advertising as aimed at making the consumer believe that supplements can be freely sold in Italy. According to the AGCM, in fact, the non compliance with the regulatory rules, has necessarily misled the consumer on a mandatory compliance for the marketing of food supplements.

Although there is no specific reminder of the ministry notification, it is in fact logic that consumers consider any obligation as complied with for the sale of the products. This piece of news is particularly relevant for the market of food supplements, that in recent years have been more and more sold on line. Moreover, the AGCM had generally expressed its views on the contents of advertising (misleading health or nutritional claims), while by these latest decisions has assessed the regulatory requirements for the marketing of food supplements in Italy.

AGCM has therefore guaranteed the maximum protection of the Italian consumers as the online sale in Italian, even on foreign websites, identifies Italian citizens as target of the product. It is therefore more and more important to market food supplements only after the relevant notification has been submitted, in order to avoid heavy fines. This presumes a careful assessment of the labels in compliance with the Italian and European requirements of this sector.