The Eighth District Judge in Administrative Matters in Mexico City, Martin Adolfo Santos Perez, has declared Article 4.1.5 of the Official Mexican Standard NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-2010 (NOM-051) unconstitutional in two different cases. This is the precept that forced food and beverage companies to remove their characters from packaging more than a year ago.

The measure to prohibit the use of “children’s characters, animations, cartoons, celebrities, athletes or mascots” on the packaging of products with warning labels was controversial from the beginning. There was no evidence to show that it would help to solve the obesity epidemic in the country, and instead several jurists pointed out that it would violate international intellectual property commitments.