Wine Law

PROMOTING THE WINE INDUSTRY UNDER FRENCH LAW 329 by the wine industry, there is the lack of distinction in the French legislation between wine and other alcoholic beverages, a clarity much needed especially given the medical and scientific evidence of the health benefits of moderate consumption of wine 43 . In the abovementioned ruling of 1 July 2015, the Court of Cassation considered that the court of reference validly noted “that the individuals appearing on the posters, identified as members of the Bordeaux wine production or marketing team, who participated in the wine production or marketing would not be accepted as such by the consumers and would become instead just the human factor referred to in Article L. 115-1 of the Consumer Code 44 , and in Article L. 3323-4 of the Public Health Code. Simply representing characters holding half a glass of wine in their hand does not exceed the limits set out by the aforementioned text, which requires an objective representation of the product, such as its colour or its method of consumption. Moreover, the impression of pleasure that emerges from all the visuals does not exceed what is necessary for the promotion of the products and is inherent in the advertising process itself, which remains lawful. In addition, the image given of a profession attracting young people, including women, and seeking modernity, is at last fully compliant with the legal provisions authorising references to the human factor associated with an appellation of origin”. Consequently, the rules governing the collective advertising of wine are less strict than those imposed for a wine which promotion is carried out by the winegrower or the merchant selling it to the consumer. As mentioned, Law no. 2016-41 inserted article L. 3323-3-1 in the Public Health Code, specifying the concept of advertising and, consequently, the scope of application of the restrictive conditions of communication in the wine industry. However, the legislator gave a negative definition by indicating that the following are not considered as an advertisement: “the contents, images, representations, descriptions, comments or references relating to a region of production, to a toponymy, to a reference or a geographical indication, to a region, to a route, to a production area, to the expertise, to the history or to the cultural, gastronomic or environmental heritage relating to an alcoholic beverage with an identification of the quality or origin” 45 . This text establishes a Prévert- style list of media and content that sidesteps the application of Loi Évin. An initial decision 46 by the trial judges clarified that the notion of “a press article for 43 C. Lebel, cited above. 44 Become article L.431-1 of the Consumer Code. 45 M. Jelila, cited above. 46 CA Paris, Pôle 1, ch. 8, 27 May 2016, no. 15/01364, ANPAA c / Association Inter Rhône.