From the Chianti powder of #winekit to cranberry-flavored Chianti: the threat comes from the web

From Chianti powder to cranberry-flavored Chianti, from Chianti fake to counterfeit labels: in the first nine months of 2019 there were 15,600 threats, 10,700 of which were removed, to Chianti, its producers and its brand, detected by Griffeshield agency specialized in “hunters” to find the threats that come from the network and neutralize them, “hired” by the Consorzio del Chianti. The main form of fraud is represented by the so-called wine kits, or chemical preparations in powder to make wine at home at a cost of one euro per bottle: 6,000 have been identified and removed. This is followed by more than 3,000 cases of unfair competition, i.e. false Chianti sold as real, and just under 2,000 trademark violations committed through the marketing of counterfeit labels. The main fraud scene is dedicated websites, such as Italian Chianti style, Original Chianti, Vintners Reserve Chianti and World Vineyard Italian Chianti, followed by major marketplaces, such as e-Bay and Amazon. At the end of the third quarter of 2019, Griffeshield detected and removed 4,852 new violations, a sign that the monitoring activity can never be interrupted, because swindlers move quickly from one part of the web to another when they are found. The results of the activity started at the beginning of 2018 are very positive: with a total of 71,891 potential threats detected in the first half of 2018, after almost two years of operation the situation presents a marked improvement, with a total of 15,638 violations detected online.
“In 2019, one third of the violations identified were those of the previous year. A sharp drop, a sign that the work works - comments the president of the Consorzio Vino Chianti, Giovanni Busi - But it is a fact that does not allow us to relax: the work of protecting our brand and our companies must continue in a tight and determined way because the damage that these scams cause are millionaires”. The worst place is the United States, because this is where the most difficult fraudsters to defuse come from: the success rate of enforcement activities (i.e. the pressure to remove unfair products) is only 78% due to the lack of willingness to cooperate. This is also a problem in the UK, the main market for wine kits, where fraudsters tend to pass the blame on to suppliers and the success rate of removal requests stops at 91%. Paradoxically, the success rate is full (100%) in China, where all operations calling for the interruption of misconduct are successful. “It is a huge effort - concludes Giovanni Busi - that allows us to eliminate the vast majority of violations and frauds that damage the Chianti brand in the world. These actions are intended to increase the pressure and therefore the risk of legal action, educating the online sales network to respect the Chianti brand and especially the rights of producers of authentic Chianti wine”.