Facts
The Food Control Office of the Canton of St. Gallen objected to an order form for the product "Schlank-Crème" offered by [X. AG] on April 23, 1998, and ordered that the advertising for this product be "stopped immediately in this form" and may only be continued "after approval by the Office". Furthermore, the cream may not be sold under the name "Schlank-Crème". The Office justified this decision on the grounds that the slimming advertising hinted at an internal effect and was therefore inadmissible under Art. 21 para. 2 of the Ordinance of March 1, 1995, on Consumer Goods (OU; SR 817.04).
On April 24, 1998, the Food Control Office of the Canton of St. Gallen further objected to the brochure "Medosan-Ratgeber" by [X. AG] and ordered that it may no longer be distributed with immediate effect. In addition, it prohibited the dispatch of advertising containing the contested formulations. The Office justified this by stating that the information on 33 of the cosmetic products listed in the "Medosan-Ratgeber" violated Art. 3 para. 2 OU, which prohibits any indications of a disease-healing, -relieving or -preventing effect of consumer goods.
[X. AG] lodged an unsuccessful appeal on April 28, 1998. The Health Department of the Canton of St. Gallen - after combining the proceedings - rejected the appeals against the appeal decisions with a decision of January 28, 1999. In contrast, the Administrative Court of the Canton of St. Gallen upheld the complaint lodged by [X. AG] on December 14, 1999.
Considerations
The Federal Court judges according to Art. 97 para. 1 FJA final-instance administrative law appeals against rulings in the sense of Art. 5 APA. Such rulings are deemed to be orders by the authorities in individual cases, which are based on federal public law and have as their subject: the establishment, amendment or repeal of rights or obligations, the determination of the existence, non-existence or scope of rights or obligations, the rejection of requests for the establishment, amendment, repeal or determination of rights or obligations, or the failure to consider such requests.
The Administrative Court came to the conclusion in the contested judgment that the measures ordered by the administrative authorities of the canton could not be ordered on the basis of federal food law. In this respect, the contested decision was based on federal law, so that it is a ruling within the meaning of Art. 5 APA that can be appealed against with an administrative law appeal.
The Federal Department of the Interior is the competent department in the matter and, according to Art. 103 lit. b FJA, is authorized to lodge an appeal without requiring a special legitimate interest; the interest in the correct enforcement of the law is sufficient.
The appeal period of 30 days according to Art. 106 FJA applies, so that the Federal Department of the Interior lodged the administrative law appeal on January 31, 2000, within the time limit.
The Food Control Office and the Health Department of the Canton of St. Gallen prohibited the advertising in question by [X. AG] based on Art. 3 para. 2 and Art. 21 para. 2 OU. According to Art. 3 para. 2 OU, any indications of a disease-healing, -relieving or -preventing effect of…