La llengua de l'etiquetatge a Barcelona i Brussel·les, Zuric i Montreal

Resum

This article, which summarizes a more comprehensive paper on the same subject, compares the labeling system of best-selling brands on sale in Barcelona, and their different labeling criteria their manufacturers use in Brussels, Zurich and Montreal. The Catalan decree 3/1993 is now the basic legal framework regulating what languages are to be used in commercial labeling. According to this law, products sold in Catalonia should be labeled at least in Catalan. Therefore, the law only allows two real alternatives: labeling that is done only in Catalan, or labels written in Catalan and other languages. Today, the dominant trend for labeling products of mass consumption in Barcelona is to use only Spanish, accounting for 70 % of the total number of brands. In Brussels, however, the dominant trend is labeling done both in French and Dutch: up to 71%. In Zurich, two major options can be found. On the one hand, there are labels written in German, French, and Italian: 47% of the total, and on the other, there are labels written only in German and French, amounting to 31% of the brands surveyed. The predominant trend in Montreal is labeling products both in French and English: up to 97.5% of the surveyed total. Manufacturers of international brands sold in Catalonia who label their products only in Spanish have had no problem, be it technical, design, or cost-related, to adapt to existing labeling regulations in Belgium, Switzerland, or Quebec. Through experimental testing, it has been shown that a normalized use of the Catalan language on labels would have a positive effect on buyers, since those of Catalan extraction had a tendency to choose products labelled in Catalan, while it would not imply a negative reaction on the part of buyers of a different extraction.