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Geographical indications, “Food Fraud” and the Fight Against “Italian sounding” Products

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ignacio Carreño  and
Paolo R. Vergano
Ignacio Carreño
Affiliation:
FratiniVergano – European Lawyers, a law firm with offices in Brussels and Singapore that specialises in international trade and food law
Paolo R. Vergano
Affiliation:
FratiniVergano – European Lawyers, a law firm with offices in Brussels and Singapore that specialises in international trade and food law
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Extract

Food producers and consumers are confronted with ever-growing choices and increasing competition within the EU and around the world. This has already led to various cases of food fraud and a call for political and legal action. Food fraud can be defined as ‘‘the deliberate and intentional substitution, addition tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, labelling, product information, or false or misleading statements made about a food product’’. Meanwhile, the issue of “food fraud”, by means of employing names, symbols and images of third countries and thereby inducing a false impression on the consumer, appears to have been neglected despite its increasing economic impact. While the EU recently approved two new Geographical Indications (hereinafter, GIs) from third countries, the issue of the protection of Italian products against “rip–off Italian products” with Italian sounding names has taken centre–stage again.

Type
Reports
Information
European Journal of Risk Regulation , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 416 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016

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References

1 See Francesco Montanari, Cesare Varallo, Daniele Pisanello, Food Fraud in the EU, 7 EJRR (2016), pp. 197 et sqq.

2 Bernd van der Meulen, Is current EU food safety law geared up for fighting food fraud?, Journal für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit (2015) 10 (Suppl 1), pp. 19 et sqq.

3 Nicola Danti, Italian sounding, la mia interrogazione alla Commissione, 17 February 2016. Available on the Internet at <http://www.nicoladanti.it/779-2/> (last accessed 5 May 2016).

4 OJ 2012 L 343/1.

5 Article 6 of Regulation (EU) No. 1151/2012. Examples of cases in which applications for registrations were accepted include the French cheese “Abondance” which is also the name of an animal breed and the Portuguese “Carnalentejana” for meat. A commonly applied approach is to add a geographical denominator before or after the product, for example Kent Cox apple, to allow for it to be registered.

6 See Trade Perspectives, Issue No. 5 of 6 March 2015. Available on the Internet at <http://www.fratinivergano.eu/en/trade-perspectives/> (last accessed 5 May 2016).

7 The EU's “Database of Origin & Registration” list all PDOs and PGIs. The database is available on the Internet at <http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/quality/door/list.html> (last accessed 5 May 2016).

8 WTO website, Module IV, Geographical Indications. Available on the Internet at <https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/ta_docs_e/modules4_e.pdf> (last accessed 5 May 2016).

9 Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Protection of indications of source and geographical indications in Switzerland. Available on the Internet at <https://www.ige.ch/en/indications-of-source/indications-of-source-and-geographical-indications/the-protection-in-switzerland.html> (last accessed 5 May 2016).

10 See the commentary available on the WTO website, Module IV, Geographical Indications, available on the Internet at <https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/ta_docs_e/modules4_e.pdf> (last accessed 5 May 2016).

11 For further information, see United States Patent and Trademark Office, Geographical Indication Protection in the United States, available on the Internet at <http://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/web/offices/dcom/olia/globalip/pdf/gi_system.pdf> (last accessed 5 May 2016).

12 According to Article 2 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 of 12 June 1996 on the registration of geographical indications and designations of origin under the procedure laid down in Article 17 of Regulation No 2081/92 (OJ 1996 L 148/1) and to Part A of the annex thereto, “Parmigiano Reggiano” is to be a PDO with effect from 21 June 1996.

13 Case C-132/05, Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 26 February 2008, Commission of the European Communities v Federal Republic of Germany.

14 Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese Consortium, “Italian Sounding”: two thirds of USA consumers deceived, 11 December 2015. A new battle for the Consortium. Available on the Internet at <http://www.parmigianoreggiano.com/news/2015/italian_sounding_thirds_consumers_deceived_battle.aspx> (last accessed 5 May 2016).

15 Niamh Michail, Mamma Mia! Mamma Tia? Italy wants to stamp out fake “Italian-sounding” names, 19 February 2016. Available on the Internet at <http://www.foodnavigator.com/Policy/Mamma-Mia!-Mamma-Tia-Italy-wants-to-stamp-out-fake-Italian-sounding-names> (last accessed 5 May 2016).

16 OJ 2005 L 149/22.

17 Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, OJ 2011 L 304/18.

18 Recital 27 of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011. Provisions relating to the origin labelling can be found in Articles 7(1) and 26(2) of said regulation.

19 See the answers by the European Commission to various Parliamentary questions (more specifically, questions P-012317/2015, E-012917/2015, P-001198/2016 and P-001199/2016) related to the issue of tomatoes marketed as “San Marzano” tomatoes but cultivated in Belgium, while “San Marzano” tomatoes are registered as an Italian PDO since 1996.

20 EUIPO, Infringement of Protected Geographical Indications for wine, spirits, agricultural products and foodstuffs in the European Union, April 2016. Available on the Internet at <https://euipo.europa.eu/tunnel-web/secure/webdav/guest/document_library/observatory/documents/Geographical_indications_report/geographical_indications_report_en.pdf> (last accessed 5 May 2016).

21 Nicola Danti, Italian sounding, la mia interrogazione alla Commissione, 17 February 2016. Available on the Internet at <http://www.nicoladanti.it/779-2/> (last accessed 5 May 2016).