The Gourmet-Case

This article was written by Ulf Djurberg¹

A Revolution in the "Cuisine Suédoise" and a Major Development of EU Case Law?

1. Introduction - the Gourmet-case in the Swedish courts

In February this year, the Swedish Market Court delivered a historic judgement, declaring the Swedish general ban on commercial advertising of alcoholic beverages in periodicals incompatible with EU law. Since it is probably the first time in Swedish legal history that a legislative act has been ruled out by a supreme court, the judgement was followed by extensive coverage in Swedish and international press. Furthermore, the judgment being based on a preliminary ruling of the European Court of Justice (the "ECJ"), EU-sceptics could once again blame the Union for exporting contaminated goods to Swedish soil.