FRANCE GOLD CASE
July 1st, 2004
BY KEITH NUTHALLTHE FRENCH government has been ordered by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to scrap its "gold alloy" designation for lower carats of gold with a fineness of 375 or 585 parts per thousand. Under French regulations, only gold with a purity of more than 750 parts per thousand (18 carat) can be sold as "gold" to the public. The European Commission challenged the system at the ECJ, claiming it illegally restricted trade within the European Union, where generally, lower carats are sold as "gold". Judges backed the Commission view that the term "gold ...
Full access to this article can be arranged with permission from the client that first ordered it. Please contact us to request access. Entries are uploaded to our archive at least one year after being published by a client – free access is restricted to International News Services journalists for background research only. The article date indicates when copy was filed to a client, not when posted to this archive. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.