The wine and spirits sector plays a central role in the French and European economies. It is a strategic pillar of the agri-food industry, a major export driver, and a cultural symbol deeply rooted in national identity. The entire industry represents thousands of farms, hundreds of unique wine-growing areas, and centuries of internationally recognized expertise. Beyond their economic value, wines and spirits contribute to a cultural prestige that feeds France’s reputation as a land of gastronomic and artisanal excellence.
The cultural importance of wines and spirits in France and Europe explains increased exposure to legal and commercial risks.Wine products are among the most affected by counterfeiting, misappropriation of reputation, parasitism, but also cybersquatting, identity theft, and fraudulent practices in e-commerce. International circulation, digital platforms, and changing consumption patterns amplify these vulnerabilities. The widespread use of online sales, the development of sophisticated counterfeits, and the misuse of geographical terms, imitation labels, or malicious visual packaging require increased vigilance and appropriate legal protection.
In this context, producers, brands, and economic operators must implement a multi-layered protection strategy, combining the specific mechanisms of wine law (appellations, geographical indications, sectoral standards), traditional intellectual property law instruments (trademarks, designs, copyright), and online monitoring and intervention tools (brand protection, combating digital fraud, customs actions).
This combination of special and common law is essential to ensure comprehensive, effective, and consistent protection of wines and spirits, both on the physical market and in the digital space.
This three-part series on the protection of wines and spirits focuses here on the objects of protection and the various instruments used to protect them, including Protected Designations of Origin (PDO/AOC).
Wines and spirits, objects of protection
Definition
French and European regulations strictly regulate wine products by defining their characteristics, production methods, and categories. These elements are set out in the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code and in European regulations applicable to categories of wines and spirits.
However, this technical definition, although necessary to regulate production, does not constitute a tool for the legal protection of distinctive signs or reputation. It does not address all the issues related to protecting the identity of wines, producers, and terroirs. For this reason, it is preferable to set aside these sector-specific definitions in favor of an analysis focused on mechanisms for protecting the name, appearance, and origin.
Limitations that make unified protection difficult
Several texts constrain the way in which wines and spirits can be presented, promoted, or marketed, making legal protection more complex.
Firstly, the Évin law strictly regulates commercial communication around alcohol, limiting the media, content, and representations that are permitted. This restriction has a direct impact on brand building and visual identity strategies, complicating the creative promotion of products and the possibility of producing sophisticated marketing content.
In addition, consumer law imposes particularly stringent transparency requirements regarding origin, mandatory information, sales practices, and claims (slogans, editor’s note) used. Any information that could mislead consumers is prohibited, which reduces operators’ leeway to create brand identities involving geographical, historical, or qualitative elements.
In short, the legal definition of products, combined with strict restrictions on communication and consumer protection, makes it difficult to establish a simple and unified framework for the protection of wines and spirits. This further justifies the use of quality and origin indication signs (SIQO), as well as intellectual property tools, to effectively protect these products.
The introduction of quality and origin indication signs (SIQO)
Quality and origin identification signs (SIQO) constitute the historical and central basis for the qualitative and territorial protection of wines and spirits. They are part of a legal regime that is both national and European, offering enhanced, collective, and internationally recognized protection. SIQOs also cover labels such as Label Rouge and Agriculture Biologique, which are awarded either by the European Union or by the French government. These systems must be distinguished from private labels, which have no regulatory value and are only valid under the contractual conditions set by the operators themselves.
SIQOs are listed in Articles L.721-1 et seq. of the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code and cover various types of geographical indications, foremost among which are PDOs (protected designations of origin) and PGIs (protected geographical indications). Their structure reflects a resolutely French approach: current European legislation is directly inspired by the French model introduced by the decree-law of July 30, 1935, relating to the first wine AOCs (appellations d’origine contrôlée), including the famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC. It was not until 2009 that the European Union completely harmonized the PDO system.
In the 1990s, European lawmakers introduced PGIs, which already existed in some national laws. Today, the regulation of April 11, 2024, is the central text governing GIs for wines, spirits, and agricultural products.
At the international level, the Lisbon Agreement and other conventions provide for transnational protection of GIs, but this remains limited due to the reluctance of many states to recognize foreign GIs: only 70 states are currently part of the system. The issue is particularly sensitive in the context of bilateral agreements, with some countries, notably the United States, considering names such as “Champagne,” “Chablis,” and “Moselle” to be generic terms. Conversely, China often shows great respect for European GIs, illustrating the geopolitical differences in this area.
The purpose of these tools is to guarantee that the product comes from a defined area and is the result of expertise codified in strict specifications, thus ensuring its quality, reputation, and credibility.
The different instruments
Protected Designations of Origin (PDO/AOC)
PDOs are the most demanding system in terms of their link to the terroir. They identify a geographical name referring to a specific place (e.g., Calvados, Vin de Savoie), a region, or, in exceptional cases, a country.
The name does not necessarily coincide with a municipality: not all Bordeaux wines come from the city of Bordeaux. Some names are not geographical (e.g., Muscadet).
The PDO may also include non-verbal elements associated with a territory: for example, the Alsace flute is one of the recognized bottle shapes for Alsatian wines. Case law recognizes that graphic elements linked to a territory may be protected (Com., Oct. 11, 1988: Scottish tartan associated with whiskey).
Obtaining a PDO requires the precise identification of the natural and human factors of the terroir; demonstration of the homogeneity of the defined area; recognition through long-standing and established use; and sufficient reputation, which varies depending on the product and influences the extent of protection.
Geographical delimitation is often the main difficulty, particularly in border areas where farmers find themselves excluded from the selected perimeter.
Protected Geographical Indications (PGI)
PGIs concern products with a less close link to the territory. The European definition requires that at least one stage of production take place in the defined area and that the product has a quality, reputation, or characteristic attributable to that area.
For wines, the rules are stricter than for other products. The grapes must come exclusively from the geographical area, and the wine must be made in that same area.
PGIs cover a wide range of products (e.g., cider). They differ from PDOs in that they have less stringent specifications and generally lower market value, although this distinction is less clear-cut for wine PGIs.
Scope of protection
The protection offered by SIQOs is particularly extensive. It covers not only the direct use of the protected name, but also any misuse, imitation, evocation, or misappropriation of reputation. Any practice that could create, in the mind of the consumer, even an implicit link with the protected name is prohibited.
Some examples from case law
Case law illustrates the extent of the protection granted to SIQOs:
In the “Calvados/Verlados” ruling of January 21, 2016, the CJEU considered that the name “Verlados,” used in Finland for a brandy, constitutes an unlawful evocation of Calvados, as the ending “-ados” is atypical in Finnish.
In the Scotch Whisky v. Glen Buchenbach ruling of June 7, 2018, the CJEU acknowledged that the use of the term “Glen,” although generic in Gaelic, constituted a prohibited evocation of Scotch Whisky since it triggered a conceptual association with the Scottish valley in the consumer’s mind.
Read also > Italian trademark “Nero Champagne” rejected by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)
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