Wine Law

In both disciplinary proceedings, two brands of alcoholic beverages (El Gaitero cider and Desperados beer) sponsored different television spots, although with the indication that the drink was “non-alcoholic”. This reference was not accepted by the CNMC, which considered in its Resolution that cider is an alcoholic beverage, albeit with a low alcohol content. This is a common characteristic of the concept of cider. El Gaitero sparkling cider, with alcohol, is the advertiser's best-known product and is known as “Sidra El Gaitero”. The sponsorship suffers from a lack of specificity to the advertised product and twice uses the name of a product with alcohol easily identifiable by the public. Finally, the sponsorships were broadcast between 6:00 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. For all the above, it can be concluded that the sponsorship advertises an alcoholic beverage with a graduation below 20 degrees outside the legally established hours. III. Consumer Protection III.1. Consumer of food products In what matters to us, the consumption of alcohol, it is true that public policies in general seek to dissuade citizens from consuming alcohol. However, it is no less true that the choice to consume alcohol – which is a legal good and allowed under certain conditions in commercial traffic – must be accompanied by sufficient and adequate legal protection for the consumer. Making a brief parenthesis, we must note that the conditions that make the commercial traffic of alcohol possible are fundamentally fiscal (payment of the corresponding tariffs and taxes), informative (that the labelling is true and truthful) and in our case sanitary, it is, in other words, that the composition is assimilable for the human body in terms of health. In this sense, the adulteration of the drink (for the sole spurious purpose of reducing costs and increasing profitability) constitutes the main risk for the alcohol consumer, so that the legal operator must point out what are the ways of avoiding such practice and what are the defense mechanisms of the victim of such a fraudulent practice. The legal protection of consumers has long received the attention of the legislator at all levels. We are going to focus our analysis on community and Spanish regulations.