Wine Law

PROMOTING THE WINE INDUSTRY UNDER FRENCH LAW 323 non-allocation of revenue to expenditure and the budgetary control imperative of Parliament 18 . Loi Évin was amended by Law no. 2005-157 of 23 February 2005 to allow references to production areas, recognised characteristics, designations and indications of origin, colour and bouquet, provided these references were objective. Moreover, the packaging of the wine must not appear in the advertisement. Law no. 2016-41 of 26 January 2016, revising our health system, inserted article L.3323-1 in the Public Health Code, proposing a negative definition of advertising by stating what is not considered an advertisement: “any advertising or publicity in favour of an organisation, a service, an activity, a product or article, other than an alcoholic beverage which, by its graphics, presentation, name, brand, logo or other distinctive sign evoking an alcoholic beverage, is considered as publicity or indirect advertising” 19 . Nevertheless, “the contents, images, representations, descriptions, comments or references relating to an area or region of production, to the toponymy, to a reference or a geographical indication to a terroir, an itinerary, expertise, historical, cultural, gastronomic or environmental heritage relating to an alcoholic beverage with an identification of quality or origin or protected under article L.665-6 of the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code do not constitute an advertisement or publicity” 20 . Therefore, the controversy between supporters and opponents on the banning of wine advertising could have been resolved, but the Minister of Health’s intervention, in February 2018, rekindled the argument. The proponents of hygienism referred to the fact that, over the last ten years, alcohol consumption had stabilised in France, albeit still at an extremely high level, with a death rate of 49,000 people per year 21 , and at considerable social cost 22 . Moreover, the wine industry lobby was accused of producing junk food or even destroying the environment – speaking of the “wine industry” as though it were an industry like any other. The issue has come full circle with the tabling of the Bill no. 208, relating to the ban on advertising alcoholic beverages filed with the office of the National Assembly on 2 July 2019. To date, this text has remained at the proposal stage, but the content is evident: to limit publicity in order to discourage alcohol consumption or even indirectly prohibit it. From moderation 18 M. Jelila, “Supervision of advertising for alcoholic beverages; The evolution of the Evin law between hygienism and defense of the wine heritage”, RD. Rur. 2017, File 10, no. 8. 19 Article L.3323-3 C, Public Health Code. 20 Article L.3323-3-1 C, Public Health Code. 21 For 2015, figure cited by the Minister in February 2018. 22 120 billion euros, according to B. Brasset, “Protection of health and defence of wine interests”, Revue Pour no. 237/238, 2019/1, p. 416; “How Agnès Buzyn’s words set the wine lobby in motion”, available in www.publicsenat.fr.