Topline
French officials destroyed thousands of bottles of soda that were illegally labeled champagne, nearly two years after the bottles were first discovered, customs officials said—falling victim to famously strict French regulations on the use of the name “champagne.”
The bottles, seized and destroyed by French customs officials, violated designation requirements … [+]
Key Facts
French border police destroyed nearly 35,000 bottles of the orange drink that were initially seized in October 2021, after customs saw the “Couronne Fruit Champagne” label on the bottles.
Officials said the bottles, which originated from Haiti and were seized in the northern port of Le Havre, France, were meant to be sold on the French market, despite a law that mandates only sparkling wine products from the French Champagne region use the title champagne.
Key Background
The destruction of the “Couronne Fruit Champagne” was nearly a year in the making, after the Paris Court of Justice ruled in October 2022 that the “marketing of these bottles was likely to infringe the Champagne protected designation of origin” and ordered the bottles be destroyed, customs officials said. Champagne is one of a few products in the world that has a formal designation allowing the word to only be used when the sparkling wine originates from the French Champagne region. The designation comes from France’s Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée system, commonly known as AOC. And it’s not just “Couronne Fruit Champagne.” French customs officials have been working to ensure counterfeit food and alcoholic beverages don’t end up on the market. French customs officials said in 2021 alone they withdrew 200,517 counterfeit items from the market. Last month in Belgium, officials destroyed more than 2,000 cans of Miller High Life after officials ruled the use of the phrase “Champagne of Beers,” which appears on the cans, violated the protected designation of “champagne.”
Tangnet
Champagne isn’t the only product that is protected by an EU geographic protection. A number of cheeses, including Italian parmesan and British stilton blue cheese, are protected by similar rules. For more than 20 years, Greek feta has also been protected—the cheese must originate from Greece in order to be labeled feta.
Big Number
121. That’s how many countries follow the AOC rule on how to use the name Champagne, according to the Champagne trade association.
Further Reading
Cheese Fight: EU Court Scolds Denmark, Rules Feta Is Exclusively Greek (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/05/25/french-police-destroy-35000-faux-champagne-bottles-for-breaking-naming-rules/