As Estee Lauder has not changed its offensive labels I am sending this letter to Mrs. Bernot,
Han Historian of Dutch metrication, The Netherlands Nijmegen, 2002-04-01 Dear Mrs. Bernot, About 18 months ago I wrote to you about the labels that Estee Lauder uses on its products sold in the EU. I quote this from one of your letters: "TABD has called on the European Union to demonstrate similar regulatory flexibility so that manufacturers have the option to use either metric only, or metric plus a supplemental unit of measurement depending on the needs of the end user." I also found this triumphalist stuff on the TABD website: "In December 1999, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers approved a 10-year deferral of the EU 'metric-only' directive. If implemented, the EU directive would have required all products sold in the EU to be labelled only in metric units, causing serious disruptions in transatlantic trade. The decision is a victory for transatlantic business, the TABD, and particularly for the small business community, which had called for the delay since 1997." I regarded and will ever regard this cave-in by the EU as cowardice, as grovelling before a superpower. Moreover, many of these small American businesses label their products in ifp-only and think that it is the God-prescribed duty of everybody in the world to understand and use it. I boycott any company which does this. Apart from everything else, these quotations prove that the TABD wants metric countries to put up with ifp for all eternity. The French, French Canadian or any other French speaking end-users do not need the once liquide. EL labels are still ifp English, ifp French, metric supplemental: 5 FL.OZ/OZ.LIQ/150 mL Labels like that which flaunt USC as the international system of units which is not the case at all, are offensive to me. EL labeling is ifp + supplemental and conflicts with the quote above: metric + supplemental. 1. Canada does not require ifp labeling, it ist just allowed. Her requirements only cover pure *language* issues. Metric units and symbols are the same in all languages. 2. The 'French-American' unit once liquide is illegal in France and in Canada; the latter country only recognizes the Imperial fluid ounce which *may*, not *must* be placed on labels. 3. The French authorities might decide sooner or later to ban the oz.liq on anything imported in France. France is entitled to take such action and I hope she will do it as soon as possible, in order to stamp out the once liquide. Other US cosmetics companies have followed Estee Lauders example in labelling with this 'French-American' unit. Donna Karan, for instance. 4. Knowing that until 2010 'supplemental' units are allowed in the EU I asked in my last message to you that Estee Lauder just practices what you preach, meaning labelling its products metric + supplemental: 150 mL/5 fl.oz. I loathe being confronted with USC in the shops where I go to. It would be no issue if the USA kept her units to herself, however. But she won't do that, she exports them to metric countries. The USA has been a signatory of the Metric Convention since 1875. In the light of this fact I could ask: how dare the USA force other countries to accommodate or even to accept ifp? So, please, have Estee Lauder change its labels to the format mL/fl.oz for the time being. Yours sincerely, Han Maenen, The Netherlands [EMAIL PROTECTED]
