Skinny prosecco scam in Court

On 29 September 2024, Marcus Hilton, director of Prosecco 1754 Limited was fined £1400 and ordered to pay costs of £2000 for breaching The Food Safety Act 1990 by making misleading claims on Prosecco wine marketed and sold by the company. The company received a fine of £2700 and also ordered to pay £2000 costs. The business was convicted after misleadingly advertising ‘Skinny’ Prosecco 1754 and ‘Skinny’ Rose Prosecco 1754, which purported to have reduced calories.

This issue was first highlighted in 2019 when samples of Standard Prosecco, Skinny Prosecco and Skinny Rose Prosecco were procured by West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service (WYTSS) and sent for analysis. An infringement report was issued to the company after the report from the Public Analyst stated the “skinny” wines were misleadingly labelled, as they were not a reduced calorie product capable of satisfying the claim. Then in 2021 further samples were taken of the same products and the Public Analyst reported the same again. This time a warning letter was issued to the company directors and a deadline was given to them to comply which they failed to adhere to, when in 2022 further samples were procured revealing the same results.

Mr Hilton representing Prosecco 1754 Limited attended an interview in 2022 where he denied the company was using misleading claims and referred to the Oxford Dictionary’s definition regarding the word ‘Skinny’  -  and he  would not accept the word amounted to a claim regarding the nutritional value of the wines, even when presented with the report from the Public Analyst who have specific expertise in food labelling law.

David Strover, Head of Trading Standards (Business Services) said, “this business marketed and sold these wines throughout the UK via their website, with an incredibly misleading “Skinny” label,  during covid lock down when online sales of food and drink were booming.  We repeatedly advised this business to amend their labelling, but they were intransigent and failed to act on our advice. Priced at £13.99 each, which is considerably more than the normal selling price of standard supermarket prosecco wine.  The products should have contained at least 30% fewer calories than the standard product to justify the claim, and they did not. I welcome today’s outcome and warn businesses that West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service will continue to investigate those businesses who persistently flout food labelling laws.”

Councillor Melanie Jones, Chair of the West Yorkshire Joint Services Committee, which oversees the work of Trading Standards said, ‘Customers rely heavily on claims and descriptions applied to food    and they should be able to make informed choices about the food they consume. I am pleased with the work of Trading Standards in concluding this case, and taking action to ensure consumers can have confidence in the accuracy of food labelling.”