The Court of Appeal has dismissed the State’s appeal in a challenge over the language used on veterinary medicine packaging and leaflets, while limiting the effect of the declaration made by the High Court.
In a judgment delivered on 11 January 2022, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan said the 2007 regulations did not properly transpose EU requirements that labelling, packaging and leaflet information be provided in the official language or languages of the country where the products were marketed. For Ireland, he said, that meant both Irish and English.
The applicant, Peadar Mac Fhlannchadha, is an Irish speaker living in the Connemara Gaeltacht and a purchaser of veterinary products for his dog. He argued that information supplied with those products was in English alone and that the domestic regulations failed to require Irish-language information as well.
The High Court had previously declared the relevant requirements of the EU directive directly effective and found the regulations had not properly transposed them. After a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union, the High Court also declared that the State must amend national law to ensure correct transposition. The State parties appealed.
The Court of Appeal agreed that the language provisions were directly effective and that the regulations did not properly transpose them. It affirmed the declaration that the requirements were not properly transposed, but specified that the declaration binds only the State and its emanations. It does not apply to private parties such as manufacturers or suppliers.
Hogan said the court did not need to direct the State to introduce amending legislation and did not decide whether it had jurisdiction to make an order with that effect. The court also set aside the High Court’s final two declarations. The broader question of whether national courts can invalidate transposing measures with general effect was left for a more appropriate case.
The judgment noted that a new EU regulation was due to take effect on 28 January 2022, allowing Ireland to require English-only packaging and labelling for veterinary products. Hogan said the approaching change was the reason the court did not make a further reference to the Court of Justice on the unresolved jurisdictional question.
On costs, Hogan’s provisional view was that the applicant had substantially succeeded and was entitled to costs in both courts, to be adjudicated if the parties could not agree. Parties were invited to write to the Registrar within 14 days if they disputed that view or sought a different one.