Wine Law

18 initiates a legal status or limits itself to recognising an existing one), it is evident the registration of a designation of origin is a public-law act in its own right, an act performed by the competent authority (including the European Commission, indeed) 26 . – Is it not conclusive evidence of the public-law nature of designations that, in contrast to previous policies of self-rule and self-control characteristic of Spanish designations, in which agri-food producers would take over quality supervision and certification roles, today, it is legal provisions regulating “official guidelines” with a view to ensuring compliance with the legal requirements applicable to quality schemes (article 36 of current European Regulation)? Who is entrusted with this verification task, one which includes supervision by inspectors? Despite potential in-house inspections, supervised by the competent authority, such task should be carried out by either the “designated public bodies” or independent “product-certifying entities”, which will perform their duties on behalf of the state and under its supervision. In short, bona fide public or official oversight. – In the same vein, who would penalise non-compliance with regulations? Aside from other means (there would always be access to courts for litigation), as soon as designations in Spain were instituted they came under the jurisdiction of both courts and state agencies, and that led to the setting up of Wine Provincial Authorities. It might be interesting, from an administrative point of view, to bring up here the following historical fact: in early 1930s “the action to lay a claim over infringement of the Wine Statute before the Wine Authority” was “public” 27 . A very telling example of the perceived true nature of the action that might illustrate the underlying public interest in the legal status. Arguably, at a later stage in Spain, the penalty for non-compliance of the product specifications while making use of the designation was imposed by privately-run entities but bestowed with certain public powers (Regulatory Councils). Notwithstanding, at present, and under Spanish law, it is the ordinary state departments that have taken over 26 How evident that might be may be also deducted from the terms of this 1953 ministerial instruction: “these designations of origin would require for their efficacy an official approval on the part of the competent authority”, as we have stated abundantly. 27 As established by article 19 of the Wine Provincial Authorities Statute, approved by executive order of 28 September 1933.