Wine Law

PROMOTING THE WINE INDUSTRY UNDER FRENCH LAW 331 authorised 48 . Recourse to the Consumer Code has thus enabled the Court of Cassation to include members of the wine industry in the terms expressly authorised by Article L. 3323-4, and this extension of its legal basis has had the effect of making the legal framework for the promotion of wines in France more flexible 49 . At the same time, a bill was tabled by the government of the time 50 , a provision which proposed, in its article 225, to insert a new article L. 3323-3-1 in the Public Health Code. According to that provision, the following would not be considered “as advertising or propaganda, within the meaning of this chapter, the contents, images, representations, descriptions, comments or references relating to a region of production, to a toponymy, to a reference or to a geographical indication, to a terroir, an itinerary, a production area, expertise, history or cultural, gastronomic or environmental heritage relating to an alcoholic beverage with an identification of quality or origin or protected at under Article L. 665-6 of the Rural and Maritime Fisheries Code”. This amendment aimed to create a distinction between advertising, which would remain governed by the provisions of the Public Health Code, and journalistic and wine tourism information, which would be unrestricted. This new provision was specifically intended to support the development of wine tourism in France, by allowing public or private operators to communicate on the regions and on current wine tourism projects in order to better inform the 12 million wine tourists who visit France every year. This draft-law adopted by Parliament failed because it was declared non-compliant with the French Constitution by the Constitutional Council for a technicality 51 ; it became a reality, however, under the already mentioned article L.3323-3-1 of Law no. 2016-41. The tide of liberalism turned in 2018, and, as previously indicated, the Minister of Health took a stand in favour of the hygienism movement. Under these conditions, the promotion of wine is not prohibited, in principle, but it is very strictly limited to both the content of the advertising message (III.1.) and the media used to communicate it (III.2.). 48 Former article L.115-1 Consumer Code, presently article L.431-1: “Constitutes an appellation of origin the denomination of a country, a region or a locality used to designate a product which originates there and whose quality or characteristics are due to the geographical environment, including natural and human factors.”. 49 In fact, constituting a reversal of case law in the area of wine advertising 50 Adopted Text no. 565 of 10 July 2015, Draft-law for growth, activity and equal economic opportunities, adopted by Parliament on 10 July 2015, also known as Macron Bill. 51 The Constitutional Council, in §165 of its decision no. 2015-715 DC of 5 August 2015, considered that this amendment had no link, even indirectly, with the provisions which appeared in the bill. Thus, the rule constituted a “legislative rider” contrary to the Constitution.