Issue:
A public civil lawsuit [ação civil pública] affirming the legality of the absence of information on sodium and calories contents on the labels of wine bottles.
Summary:
Associação Nacional de Defesa da Cidadania e do Consumidor (ANADEC) filed a public civil lawsuit [ação civil pública] against Vinícola Perini. The petitioner argued that Vinícola Perini violated the right to information under Brazilian consumer protection law, because their wine bottles did not include on their label information the amount of sodium or calories.
After that, a first instance judge ruled against ANADEC, which appealed the decision. An appeals court later ruled in favor of ANADEC, leading to further appeals that ultimately brought the case before the Superior Tribunal of Justice (STJ) [Superior Tribunal de Justiça]. After all, STJ applied the specialty principle and decided that the Consumer Defense Code [Código de Defesa do Consumidor] did not apply to this situation. According to the Court, there is an specific law that regulates wine production, and, in addition to that, this law does not require winemakers to include information on sodium and calories contents on the labels of wine bottles.