16 May “Agricultural” geographical indications: enter into force of the new (EU) Regulation 2024/1143
The new Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 on geographical indications (GIs) for wines, spirits and agricultural products was published last April and entered into force last Monday, 13 May 2024; except for a few provisions that will apply from 1 January 2025 – namely those concerning the national opposition process, the list of operators bound by the GI specification, and the certification of compliance with the GI specification.
This Regulation establishes a unitary and comprehensive GI regime for the protection of the names of wines, spirit drinks and agricultural products; and repeals and replaces Regulation (EU) 1151/2012 on agricultural products and foodstuffs, and partially amends Regulations (EU) 1308/2013 on wines, and (EU) 2019/1753 on spirit drinks.
As main new features, the Regulation provides that a producer group may agree on sustainable practices in the production of the GI protected good, or in relation to the mandatory activities of the GI specification. It also regulates the protection of GIs in domain names, with the provision that the EUIPO will create and manage an information and alert system for such names; and provides that a product which incorporates as an ingredient another protected GI, indication of that GI may be placed next to the name of a protected ingredient on the labelling of a product.
This Regulation unifies the existing EU regulation for so-called “agricultural” GIs, recently completed with that for GIs for artisanal products (referred to as ‘non-agricultural’) – see related article -.
Photo by Cody Berg on Unsplash.com