Inspection at a wine fair in a large supermarket near Clermont-l’Hérault: “misleading” labelling and other offences observed

In the aisles, the fraud prevention officer found “very few” products present in the catalog. – F. A.

The prefect (left) and the director of the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (center) participated in this operation. – F. A.

The price in large print corresponds to a purchase in batches of six bottles. A “deceptive commercial practice”, for the repression of fraud. – F. A.

Checking the products for sale, their origin and their labeling: these were some of the objectives during the operation carried out this Thursday, September 19 in the aisles of the wine fair of the Lidl store in Saint-André-de-Sangonis, near Clermont-l'Hérault. Accompanied by the prefect of Hérault, the repression of fraud noted several infractions that will be sanctioned.

While the wine fair season is in full swing in large and medium-sized stores, the fraud squad carried out an inspection on Thursday, September 19, in the aisles of the Lidl store in Saint-André-de-Sangonis, near Clermont-l’Hérault. An unannounced visit, in the presence of the prefect François-Xavier Lauch and the director of the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP) of Hérault, Yann Louguet.

"Intensify controls of agricultural products"

“The Ministers of Agriculture and Economy have made a commitment to farmers to step up checks on agricultural products, including wine. Their number has tripled. We have carried out 155 since the beginning of the year. In 15% of cases, the rules for placing products on shelves were not respected. Recently, a store near Clermont-l’Hérault was fined 10,000 euros,", the State representative said in the preamble to this inspection.

Main objective: to ensure that the presentation of products on the shelves does not mislead the consumer. However, at first glance, several anomalies appear in this wine fair. The wines have been classified by color and on the shelves, French and foreign vintages alternate: crémant de Bourgogne, prosecco, champagne. “Normally, the different origins should be separated by clear markings”, notes one of the fraud prevention officers. Right next to it, a bag of grapefruit rosé. “This flavored wine-based product should not be found in the wine section.” The carton bears the words “produced in France”, but the drink is made from wines from France and other countries of the European Union. Yet another trap for the consumer.

Among the wines in the catalog “very few” are on the shelf

For her part, an inspector ensures that the wines presented in the brand's brochure are indeed on the shelf. She finds “very few”.“We will continue our investigation by checking the delivery notes since the beginning of the wine fair period. It may happen that a reference mentioned in the catalog has never been on the shelf in the store.” Claudine, a customer who came to buy wine, confirms: “Of the four products that I had spotted, I only found one”. As a fraud prevention officer, she finds that the organization of the departments leaves something to be desired: “Everything is mixed up. But I am very attentive to the origin of the products, for wine as well as for cheeses or cold cuts.”

In this store, there is also a problem with the labeling. For this Saint-Chinian, the unit price that appears in large print corresponds to a purchase of six bottles. The real unit price is only written in very small print, underneath. “It is a misleading commercial practice”, observes the inspector, who will sanction her with a fine. “We will estimate the profit that the store was able to make on this product from the delivery notes and the cash register rolls. The report will be sent, within a month or two, to the public prosecutor, to whom we propose a fine amount."

Wines, cucumbers, mussels: fines for having Frenchified foreign products

In Hérault, the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP) has fined several large stores for offences involving the francisation of products of foreign origin. A fine of €4,000 was imposed on a hypermarket for “labelling of a nature misleading and retail sale of fishery products without proper display", and 6,000 euro; for "deceptive commercial practice on the origin of wines." A supermarket had to pay 1,000 euro; for having francized the origin of foreign cucumbers and avocados. A hypermarket, 2,000 euro; for the same offence on mushrooms and cucumbers. Finally, a seafood professional paid a fine of 1,000 euros. He had sold foreign mussels as French.

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