Iceland store

Just had a read, what a laugh, but sadly after that, X Factor starts to have some appeal!

Iceland is closed!!   According to a local report there was an inspection yesterday by authorities and they have had to close because of labeling/translation issues.  Hope it re-opens again soon.  Such a shame that  authorities seem to want to close down businesses rather than encourage them!

Update from a friend who works there, they will re-open in three days.

I remember this happening to other shops and they were up and running again in no time.

Open again today.

That EU law is an absolute minefield. The gist is that all pre-packed food products have "to be labelled in a language that is easily understood" and that this is '"generally assumed to be the official language(s) of the country concerned". Plenty of room for interpretation there.

( I wonder what happens in Switzerland. It's not part of the EU so any law or judgement doesn't apply, but has four official languages.)

So far as I can tell it goes back to 1993 when a Dutch company wanted to sell goods in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium without re-labelling. They were told they could not, as French is also an official language in Belgium and that under Belgian law therefore everything has to be bi-lingual. This despite the fact that the Dutch speakers can't or won't speak French and vice-versa. They went to court and lost.

(Pedantic mode: There is also a tiny German-speaking area in the east of Belgium where, as I recall from a visit long ago, German is rarely seen on public notices etc but is spoken. Certain historical legacy there. There is one bit of Deutschland that is entirely surrounded by Belgium because of an old railway line.)

There was a case in the UK many moons ago when the Benjy's chain of sandwich bars were selling cans of Coca Cola they had sourced from Greece and were therefore labelled only in Greek. Westminster Council successfully prosecuted them.

I shall henceforward make it my business to examine all the Spanish produced goods in the various supermarkets to ensure that they also have Portuguese words on the label.

Another example of double standards - the UK goes out of its way to produce all sorts of official paperwork in whatever languages are thought necessary for those who do not speak English.  And I don't mean in Welsh or Gaelic. Here in Portugal, also in France and doubtless elsewhere, this simply does not happen. You at least learn to read the language or you struggle.

  Now given that we know that 10% of the population of the Algarve is Briitish and quite probably another 5% English speaking, perhaps there should be a referendum about having English as an official language.

In fairness, I was told that Portuguese owned Apolonia also had to de the same thing as Iceland, but then again they cannot claim the 70% British customer base that Iceland can.