Dumb Laws

[Fran]

I wanted to post a new topic on dumb laws because I think the EU will always win.

[in Cyprus all the street signs, labels and menus are in Greek and English. It's in their best interest to do so as their main source of income is from tourism - nearly all whom are British who come to escape from the miserable UK weather...]

Cyprus joined the EU last year. Here's the latest dumb EU directive:

"All medicine and supplements must now be labelled ONLY in the country's mother tongue."

So we have everything else in Greek and English, but supplements and medicines must now only be in Greek. This has got to come from the French.

[Kat]

Hi Fran,

Welcome to OL. That does seem like a dumb law because it seems to forbid the manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and supplements from using any other language. What would be the penalty for having other languages printed in the instructions? That is a fairly common practice in many industries, such as electronics. I just bought a new cell phone and the manual is English and if you turn it over, it is in Spanish.

Do you know why this specific industry is targeted? It seems that they should let the manufacturer make the call as to whether they want their written materials translated into other languages. Does the EU have issues there similar to the U.S. and Canada with price disparity in prescription drugs between countries? Where is the pressure to pass such a this bone-headed law coming from.

Kat