what legal article can be use to solve this issue? The EU adopted Directive 1/2345/EU of 23 January 2015 on approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to cocoa and chocolate products in order to lay down some basic definitions and common rules in respect of the composition and manufacturing specifications of these products. The preamble of the Directive states that such measures are necessary in order to harmonise those provisions applying to chocolate products which may create barriers for trans-border trade. The Directive defines as chocolate products all those with a minimum dry cocoa content of 35% consisting of at least 14% of dry non-fat cocoa and 18% cocoa butter. At the same time, the Directive states that it does not affect national provisions allowing or prohibiting to add vegetable oils other than cocoa butter for production of chocolate. The Directive requires Member States to bring their national law in compliance with the indicated requirements within 1 year. Member State Y is a home to many well-known cocoa and chocolate producers who look back at a long tradition of chocolate making. It has a well-developed legislation in this field. Its respective national law requires that exclusively cocoa butter is used to produce chocolate. Cocoa products containing vegetable oils other than cocoa butter can be produced, but need to be marketed under the name "chocolate substitutes" in order not to mislead the consumers. The name "chocolate substitute" is intended to call attention to the difference between the purely cocoa products and products with other vegetable oils. Member State Y has examined its laws on chocolate production and marketing and found them in compliance with the EU rules. Company C is a chocolate producer from a Member State C, where up to 5% substitution of cocoa butter with other analogue vegetable oils is allowed, decided to expand to State Y. In March 2012 company C opened five shops in State Y and started to sell, among others, cocoa products containing 1% vegetable oil, different from cocoa butter. All products in the shops were sold as chocolate; they were clearly marked as produced in the Member State C; the list of ingredients included the entry "vegetable oils -20%", but the sorts of the vegetable oils were not specified. In May 2017, C's shops were inspected by the Foodstuffs Commission of State Y and Company C was fined with 100.000 EUR for failure to comply with the marketing requirements under Y's laws. Foodstuffs Commission further requested to mark relevant cocoa products distinctively as "chocolate substitutes". Company C thinks that Y's national laws and practices are not in compliance with the requirements of the EU law. It feels that Y's actions are discriminatory against foreign chocolate producers because marketing products as "chocolate substitutes" is more expensive and negatively affects their chances on the market in comparison to the local producers. In fact, Company C has been selling less cocoa products after they were renamed into "chocolate substitutes". Company C asks you -a lawyer specialized in European Union law -for an advice on the following issues: Violation of what European norms and obligations originating from them can be claimed? Company C also asks you to make a preliminary analysis of the possible violations in order to assess its chances to win the case in the court.
