Wine Law

28 of origin to the provision of services in the future” 32 . There is no denying — they claim— there is a growing demand for the protection of non-food products under the legal framework of designations 33 . I will tackle these controversial, but extremely relevant, by first going over some concepts, norms and ruling, then delving into various scholarly opinions and wrapping up with a personal assessment. 5.1. Various attempts at regulation and the role of courts: current uncertainty in the European Union The first Spanish attempts at regulating designations of origin were made in relation to wine. In later stages other agricultural products and foodstuffs were also targeted. By means of Regulatory Act of 5 September 1953, there was a further attempt at extending the scope, which did not come to fruition, as it set up the General Inspectorate for Designations of origin. It was approved by the Ministry for Energy and Industrial Strategy and it aimed at regulating — as stated in the first paragraph of its Preamble — those designations that because of their “industrial nature” “can be described as products of singular quality, being manufactured in a way closely linked to a geographical area”. This was a qualifying circumstance “for the official recognition by the Ministry for Energy and Industrial Strategy” as designation of origin, subject to the supervision of the General Inspectorate created. As we have said above, this initiative was not implemented. Much later, with the Constitution already in force, some autonomous regions assumed the exclusive power over designations of origin (Galicia did in its article 30.1.4 of its Statute of Autonomy). Backed by this legal prop, this autonomous region passed Act 9/1985, of 30 June, of 32 This is the opinion formulated in BERCOVITZ RODRÍGUEZ-CANO, A. (2002), Apuntes de Derecho Mercantil , 3 rd ed., Aranzadi, Cizur Menor (Navarra), p. 511. GUILLEM CARRAU, J. is also in favour of such an extension. He believes that the concept would be embraced warmly by “service-providers in tourist resorts” ( vid . “Nuevas reglas UE para las denominaciones de origen (Reglamento CE 1151/2012)”, La Ley Unión Europea , nº 9, 2013, p. 5). 33 MONTERO GARCÍA-NOBLEJAS, P. (2016), Denominaciones de origen e indicaciones geográficas , Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia, p. 140.