The Foodwatch association, which campaigns for transparency in the food industry, has obtained approval to become one of the sixteen consumer defense associations for a period of five years, according to a decree published Wednesday in the Official Journal.
“
Approval to exercise nationally the rights recognized for approved consumer associations by the Consumer Code is granted to the Foodwatch France association for a period of five years
”, stipulates the decree published on Wednesday and taken by the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti and by the Minister Delegate for Trade and Consumer Affairs Olivia Grégoire.
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The National Consumer Institute (INC), a public establishment, details on its website that an approved consumer association is recognized by the public authorities as "
representative of consumer interests
".
This status allows him in particular to "
defend in court the collective interest of consumers and to bring group actions
", to seize the Commission of unfair terms or the Competition Authority, or to sit on the National Council of consumption, a joint advisory body.
This approval "
confirms the usefulness and impact of foodwatch in defending the rights of consumers to healthy food and more transparency
", reacted Karine Jacquemart, director of foodwatch in France, in a press release sent to the AFP.
“
Foodwatch remains a 100% financially independent citizen counter-power because we refuse all public funding
,” she underlines.
Foodwatch was founded in 2002 in Germany in response to the mad cow scandal.
It has been present in the Netherlands since 2009, in France since 2013, in Brussels and Austria since the end of 2020. An independent European NGO, it was until then present in France under the status of the 1901 law.
The fifteen other associations approved at the present time come from, further specifies the INC, three major movements.
First, the family movement, with the Cnafal (National Council of Secular Family Associations), the CNAFC (National Confederation of Catholic Family Associations), the CSF (Trade Union Confederation of Families), Families of France, Rural Families, Unaf (National Union of Family Associations).
Then the associations stemming from the trade union movement: Adeic (Association for the defence, education and information of consumers), AFOC (Association Force Ouvrière Consumateurs) and Indecosa-CGT (Association for information and defense of salaried consumers-CGT).
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And finally, the "
consumerist and specialist
" movements: the UFC-Que Choisir (Federal Union of Consumers-Que Choisir) and the CLCV (Consumption, housing and living environment) for consumer problems, the CGL (General Confederation of housing) and the CNL (National Housing Confederation) for housing, the Fnaut (National Federation of Transport User Associations) for transport and the ALLDC (Léo Lagrange Association for the Defense of Consumers) for popular education .