Yesterday, April 23, 20024, Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 of the European Parliament and of the Council, amending the regime governing geographical indications in the European Union, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
This regulation repeals Regulation (EU) No . 1151/2012 on the quality of agricultural products and foodstuffs, which governed geographical indications (Protected Designation of Origin—PDO—and Protected Geographical Indication—PGI) and guaranteed traditional specialties (GTS), as well as the use of certain optional quality terms, and replaces it with the new regulation. It also partially amends the provisions of the EU regulations on wine quality designations (Regulation 1308/2013) and spirits (Regulation 2019/1753).
Its publication marks a crucial milestone in the update and expansion of the scope of protection for quality designations, as recently provided for by Regulation (EU) 2023/2411 of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 18 on the protection of geographical indications for artisanal products, which introduced for the first time a system for protecting GIs for such products at the European Union level and amended Regulations (EU) 2017/1001 and (EU) 2019/1753.
Among the new provisions of the regulation approved yesterday—in line with current trends in intellectual and industrial property and other fields governing production and trade—is the inclusion and emphasis on sustainability in all its aspects (environmental, social, and economic), albeit within a voluntary framework.
Other particularly noteworthy aspects include its contribution to better protection and explicit legal protection for geographical indications with respect to domain names and on the Internet—something that had been consistently demanded in recent years given the discriminatory and disadvantaged position in which geographical indications found themselves in this area within some of the most important domain name dispute resolution systems and other environments, particularly when compared to trademarks.
It also regulates the conditions under which the mention of a geographical indication may be used commercially when it is listed as an ingredient on a product’s label—an area where, in practice, there was a tendency to create ambiguity and confusion among consumers regarding whether the product benefited from the geographical indication or what, specifically, benefited from that geographical indication.
The regulations also address the requirement to identify the producer on the label, the use of personal data in applications, and the role of producer groups as managing entities for GIs.
According to sources at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, Spain ranks third among EU member states in terms of the number of quality designations (PDO, PGI, and TSG), with 381 entries in the EU registry, trailing only Italy, with 890 designations, and France, with 769. The 381 Spanish designations are distributed among 146 wines, 212 agri-food products—including cheese; meats and similar products; seafood; fruits, vegetables, and legumes; olive oil and vinegar; sweets such as polvorones, turrón, and alfajores, among others; honey, etc.—, 19 spirits, and 4 Traditional Specialities Guaranteed (TSG), with another 25 designations currently in the process of being registered with the European Commission.
According to the latest available data, more than 330,000 farmers and ranchers in Spain produce products bearing geographical indication quality labels, with more than 1.5 million hectares of cultivated land and 2.3 million head of livestock. This high-quality production has an estimated value at source of more than 7,000 million euros and is subject to a rigorous control program, which is part of the National Plan for Official Control of the Food Chain (PNCOCA 2021–2025) and carried out 49,213 inspections in 2022.
The new regulation will take effect 20 days after its publication and will also be applicable as of May 13, 2024, except for the provisions relating to Article 10, paragraphs 4 and 5 (concerning the national objection procedure of EU Member States), Article 39, paragraph 1 (regarding the preparation by Member States of the list of operators engaged in activities subject to obligations set forth in the specifications for GIs), and Article 45 (which addresses the certification of compliance with the specifications), which will take effect on January 1, 2025.
Miguel Ángel Medina, Associate Partner at ELZABURU
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