The European Court of Justice has given European Union national courts some leeway to insist a product is regulated as a medicine, when sold as food in another EU member state.

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Considering a German food supplement case, it said decisions on whether a product is food or medicine “must take account of all the characteristics of the product, established both in the initial stage of the product and where it is mixed”.


But if the product contains pharmacological properties “restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions”, national courts can insist it is marketed under pharmaceuticals directive 2001/83, “even (when) lawfully marketed as a foodstuff in another member state”.

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