Wine Law

22 European Union, strongly supports the signature of international agreements, aimed at protecting DOs and GIs. In this connection, it is worth recalling that on 26 February 2020, the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications, adopted in 2015, finally entered into force 13 . This new international agreement allows the international registration of geographical indications through a single registration procedure before the WIPO. This process of internationalisation of the protection of DOs and GIs is fundamental, especially for countries, such as Italy, which export their products all over the world. As a matter of fact, the cooperation among different institutions and police authorities grants to the protection of designations of origin and geographical indications a substantially higher degree of effectiveness. For instance, very recently, on 30 June 2020, the Italian investigative authorities, with the important support of Europol, managed to discover an international network of counterfeited wine, infringing in particular Italian DOs and GIs. The infringed products were sold through online platforms in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and the United States. On a final note, all the analysed instruments and strategies, which have been improving in the recent years, always require the unavoidable attention of consumers, which are the final recipients of the qualitative characteristics of the products bearing designations of origin and geographical indications. The moment of consumer’s choice constitutes the concrete parameter, which allows to verify the effectiveness of the entire system of DOs and GIs’ protection. In this sense, it has to be remembered that all the above-mentioned laws and regulations are aimed at preserving a rich cultural heritage and, consequently, a consumption choice, especially for wine products, is also a cultural choice. 13 See : https://www.wipo.int/lisbon/en/news/2020/news_0001.html#:~:text=The%20Geneva%20Act%20 of%20the%20Lisbon%20Agreement%2C%20adopted%20May%2020,certain%20intergovernmental%20or ganizations%2C%20including%20the.