Wine Law

18 wholesale retailer Aldi, which sells lemon sorbet, with a 12% percent of Champagne, using the designation “Champagner Sorbet”. Obviously, this principle shall be applied according to the factual background of the case. For instance, in Veneto, in October 2019, hundreds of bags of chips, bearing the well- known “Pringles” trademark, have been seized by the Italian Authorities, since the challenged products presented a label with the designation “prosecco chips”, despite the fact that the flavour of wine was obtained by a powder and not by the original product 8 . This use is, obviously, very different from that realised by Aldi, with the Champagner sorbet. Finally, it is worth mentioning an interesting series of cases, concerning designations of origin for vinegar, product obtained by the fermentation and aging of wine. Although only indirectly related to wine products, these decisions deserve to be mentioned, since they show very well the different approach, on the same factual and juridical aspect, of the European Court of Justice and of the different national Courts of merit. In particular, the case is related to the protection of the term “balsamico”, used in the geographical indication “Aceto Balsamico di Modena”. As a matter of fact, designations of origin and geographical indications, also in the field of wine products, may be composed by more than one term, including words, which are not evocative of a geographical area, thus being, for instance, directly related to a specific and qualitative characteristic of the product. In these cases, it is disputed the extent of protection of the DO or GI. In this connection, the Court of Justice of the European Union, with the recent ruling of 04 December 2019 (C-432/18), has stated that “ the protection of the name ‘Aceto Balsamico di Modena’ does not extend to the use of the individual non-geographical terms of that name ”. Concretely, this means that to the term “balsamico” would not be granted any autonomous protection, if not directly associated to the geographical element of the GI, despite the fact that the term “balsamico” is directly evocative of the Italian vinegar, typical of Modena and Reggio Emilia. 8 See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/16/stop-you-cant-pop-prosecco-pringles-seized-in- italy.