12 | 12 | 2016

EUIPO’s Study on the Infringement of Protected Geographical Indications and Designations of Origin for Wine, Spirits, Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs in the European Union

© Croatian National Tourist Board, Photo: Ivo Biočina

The European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) published a study dealing with market research of products labelled with geographical indications and designations of origin in the European Union and infringements thereof, originally titled: Infringement of protected geographical indications for wine, spirits, agricultural products and foodstuffs in the European Union.

A geographical indication or a designation of origin is an indication (usually a name of a geographical region) signifying that a product originates from a specific geographical region and possesses a certain quality or features, reputation or other characteristics attributable to that origin.

This study used data obtained from seventeen Member States of the European Union, comprising 82% of this specific market, with 23,000 inspections of compliance checked on 51,627 products labelled with geographical indications and designations of origin, in the period 2011 – 2015 (Table, p. 19.).

The study shows that the consumption of products labelled with geographical indications and designations of origin in the European Union amounted to €48 billion and that that the main production and consumption of these products are shared by France, Germany and Italy. Also, the greatest consumption of products labelled with geographical indications and designations of origin is concentrated in wine (54.3%), followed by spirits (13.3%) and cheeses (12.7%).

Furthermore, the study shows that the value of products infringing geographical indications and designations of origin totalled €4.3 billion in 2014, corresponding to 9% of the total production of products labelled with geographical indications and designations of origin. The loss suffered by consumers, being convinced to be buying a genuine product, amounted to €2.3 billion. Infringements of geographical indications and designations of origins were recorded in most of the cases with products from the class of spirits (12.7%), fruits, vegetables and cereals (11.5 %) and fresh meat and meat products (11%).

The study is available via the following link.