Wine Law

Code, according to which the following “a re not 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 legislative amendment adopted by Parliament failed because it was declared non-compliant with the French Constitution by the Constitutional Council, for a technicality 54 . This draft amendment became reality under the law of 26 January 2016 55 , which introduced article L.3323-3-1 in the Public Health Code according to which the following “are not considered as advertising or propaganda, ... contents, images, representations, descriptions, comments or references relating to a production region, to a toponymy, to a reference or a geographical indication, to a region, to a route, to a production area, to expertise, to the history or to the cultural, gastronomic or environmental heritage relating to an alcoholic drink with an identification of the quality or the origin, or protected under article L.665-6 of the Rural and Maritime Fisheries Code”. The tide of liberalism turned in 2018. 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.). 54 The Constitutional Council, in its decision of 5 August 2015 (Cons. Const., 5 August 2015, n ° 2015-715 DC §165), 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. 55 Law n ° 2016-41 of 26 January 2016 on the modernisation of our health system