Justice suspends decision that prohibited the sale of Del Valle Fresh juices in DF

The 8th Civil Class of the Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories granted an injunction (provisional decision) to suspend the administrative decision of the Procon-DF that prohibited Coca-Cola and the distributor Brasal Refrigerantes from marketing Del Valle Fresh juice.

For the judge Arquibaldo Carneiro, the suspension of the commercialization of a certain product needs to be based on a serious situation that represents a risk to the consumer, which is not the case of the products of the line.

“I note that the administrative act concerns the information on the labels/packaging, and not the products themselves, nor do they refer to an aspect of these that could compromise their lives, health or safety of consumers”, said Carneiro.

Lawyer Leonardo Vieira, from Brasal Refrigerantes, says that the decision of Procon-DF “was not reasonable”.

“In addition to the clear legal uncertainty that the administrative precautionary measure brought, the Procon-DF decision also seriously hurt free competition, since other products in a similar situation did not suffer similar sanction”, says the lawyer.

The Procon-DF decision was taken on May 13, after Idec (Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection) denounced that the Del Valle Fresh product line does not have percentages of fruit or juice in its composition to be considered juice, nectar or refreshment.

Procon prohibited the supply, distribution and sale of the products until the labels were corrected. According to consumer protection agencies, the packaging of the line features images of fruit (orange, lemon and grape), while essential information about the characteristics, qualities and properties of the product are found on the sides and in small print.

In less than a month, it was the third suspension of sales applied by the Procon-DF to food due to allegations of misleading advertising.

The first case involved McDonald’s with the McPicanha line that did not include the cut of meat in its snacks, as its name implied.

Then it was Burger King’s turn, which has already changed the name of its sandwich, which was previously called Whopper Ribs, but was made with a pork shoulder.