IN 2014, 2.1 BILLION EUROS WORTH OF COUNTERFEIT WINE, EQUAL TO 8.4% OF THE TOTAL WINE MARKET WAS SOLD IN EUROPE. THE LATEST STUDY ON VIOLATIONS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS BY THE OSSERVATORIO EUROPEO SOUNDED THE ALARM

It is common knowledge that wine is one of the most imitated and counterfeited products, but the problem has now reached alarming proportions and not only outside the European Union borders, where protecting names and local production is more difficult, but also in the Old World. In 2014, the counterfeit wine market reached 2.1 billion euros, equal to 8.4% of the total for the sector.
The European Observatory study on intellectual property rights violations (www.euipo.europa.eu), which calculated the weight of the violations on geographic indications that should protect wines, spirits and food within the European Union, sounded the alarm.
According to the study, the total value of counterfeit wine sold in 2014 was 4.3 billion euros, 9% of the total of the geographic indication products market. In 42% of cases they were imitations, copies or sound alike geographic indication products, while in 38% of cases, the products did not have geographic indication and the label indicated misleading information about the origin of raw materials.