Since 1979, the
European Commission has sought a single system of measurement within the EU.
This was achieved on January 1st, 2000 for all regulated transactions. Apart
from a number of specified exceptions, such as the pint in British and Irish
pubs, metric units became the EU's only lawfully recognised weights and
measures for purposes of trade.
There is still, of
course, widespread use of pounds and fluid ounces for foods and goods, but
such information is additional to statutory metric indications.
Imperial and other traditional units are displayed at the private discretion
of retailers, not because they are recognised in law for purposes of trade.
As such, this might
have been expected to be the end of the EC's metric conversion process.
Government bodies can compel the use of specified measures for trading law,
but they cannot prevent people from expressing quantity and dimensions
privately in other forms. Nevertheless, this is what the EC seeks to do.
January 1st, 2010 -
metric-only labelling
EC Directive 99/103
(amending 80/181) at first permits additional non-metric information. Article
3(2) says that, "The use of supplementary indications shall be authorised�"
While it sounds
useful, Article 3(2) is not a provision that is necessary in law, since it
does nothing other than to provide an option for private citizens to exchange
information. Freedom to provide information is a civil liberty that existed
before EC directive 99/103 and, since the information in question (inch-pound)
is surplus to that required by law (metric), permission from the EC for its
provision need not be sought.
The purpose of EC
Article 3(2) is political rather than legal because, having purported to
confer a civil liberty, it provides an apparent means of removing that liberty
by the addition of four words, "The use of supplementary indications shall be
authorised until 31 December 2009". From this date, the European
Commission says, the voluntary display of information in customary units will
be no longer be permitted on packaging sold in the EU.
EC Article 2(3) is
unlawful because the information it seeks to deny lies outside the regulated
contract of sale and is exchanged between private parties. EC Article 3(2) is
also in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 10)
which expressly protects freedom of _expression_ and the right to impart
information:
| "Everyone has the right to freedom of
_expression_. This right shall include freedom to... receive and impart
information...without interference by public authority and regardless of
frontiers" (Article 10, ECHR). |
Article 3(2) has no
legal effect.
