Legal reasons why your goods may be seized for incorrect labelling

In Spain, health authorities have the power to seize goods and fine the distributor when products do not comply with labelling rules. This causes confusion: inspections rarely take place in your wholesale warehouse, but once you deliver to the customer (bar, restaurant or shop) the goods are already in circulation, and that is where you can run into problems.

Who can seize goods and impose fines?

Food control powers are devolved to the comunidades autónomas (Spain's regional governments), usually through:

• Health Inspection or Food Safety Services (part of the regional health departments).
• Regional consumer affairs or public health agencies.
• In some cases, municipal inspectors as well (local public health).

The Ministerio de Sanidad (Spanish Ministry of Health) coordinates criteria, but enforcement is regional.

How large are the fines?

• Minor: from €600 to €3,000.
• Serious: from €3,001 to €15,000.
• Very serious: up to €600,000 where there is a health risk or repeat offending.

Beyond the money, seizure means you cannot sell the product until you correct the labelling, with all the financial and reputational cost that entails.

What the law says (Regulation 1169/2011)

📄 Full text in Spanish (BOE, Spain's Official State Gazette): download here

• Article 8 – Responsibility of the operator

"The food business operator responsible for the food information shall be the operator under whose name or business name the food is marketed."
👉 If you are an importer or parallel distributor, you are responsible for ensuring the label is applied and complies with the rules.

• Article 9 – Mandatory information

Name of the food, list of ingredients, allergens, net quantity, use-by or best-before date, storage conditions and conditions of use, business name of the responsible operator in the EU, country of origin (where mandatory), production batch and alcoholic strength (>1.2%).

• Article 12 – Availability and placement of information

"Mandatory food information shall be available and shall be easily accessible for all foods."

• Article 13 – Presentation of information

"Mandatory food information shall be marked in a conspicuous place in such a way as to be easily visible, clearly legible and indelible. It shall not in any way be hidden, obscured or interrupted by any other written or pictorial matter."
👉 This rules out the practice of handing over loose labels: the information must already be attached to the container or packaging at the moment it circulates.

• Article 15 – Language

In Spain it is mandatory in Spanish, and in regions with a co-official language it may also be required in that language.

Cases, consumer units and loose labels

• Case/wholesale unit: yes, your sales unit can be the case, but that does not exempt you from labelling the consumer units, because the point is that the product reaches the consumer correctly labelled.
• Consumer units (bottles, cans): relabelling is mandatory if they do not comply with the rules (e.g. imports without Spanish labelling).
• Sign in the outlet: does not replace labelling on the container; it only serves as additional information.
• Handing loose labels to the customer: not legally valid. If there is an inspection before the retailer applies them, the fine goes to the wholesaler. The information must travel with the product, visible and attached.

Our solution at Red Paralela

Many wholesalers lack the means to relabel imported or parallel-market products correctly. That is why at Red Paralela we can carry out compliant relabelling before delivery to the customer. That way you avoid:

• "Surprise" seizures during inspections.
• Unnecessary fines.
• The risk of complaints from competitors.

In summary

• The regional health authority can seize goods and impose fines.
• The labelling must already be on the goods when they leave the wholesaler.
• Handing out labels separately is not valid: Articles 12 and 13 of the Regulation make that clear.
• Red Paralela can take care of relabelling so your goods circulate risk-free.