Geographical indications and traditional specialities in the European Union
Three European Union schemes of geographical indications and traditional specialties, known as protected designation of origin, protected geographical indication, and traditional speciality guaranteed, promote and protect names of agricultural products and foodstuffs, wines and spirits. Products registered under one of the three schemes may be marked with the logo for that scheme to help identify those products. The schemes are based on the legal framework provided by the EU Regulation No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs.
This regulation applies within the EU as well as in Northern Ireland. Protection of the registered products is gradually expanded internationally via bilateral agreements between the EU and non-EU countries. It ensures that only products genuinely originating in that region are allowed to be identified as such in commerce. The legislation first came into force in 1992. The purpose of the law is to protect the reputation of the regional foods, promote rural and agricultural activity, help producers obtain a premium price for their authentic products, and eliminate the unfair competition and misleading of consumers by non-genuine products, which may be of inferior quality or of a different flavour. Critics argue that many of the names, sought for protection by the EU, have become commonplace in trade and should not be protected.
These regulations protect the names of wines, cheeses, hams, sausages, seafood, olives, olive oils, beers, balsamic vinegar, regional breads, fruits, raw meats and vegetables.
Based on these regulations, within the EU, food such as gorgonzola, Parmigiano-Reggiano, feta, Waterford blaas, Herve cheese, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Piave cheese, Asiago cheese, camembert, Provence honey, Herefordshire cider, cognac, armagnac, and champagne can only be labelled as such if they come from the designated region. To qualify as roquefort, for example, cheese must be made from milk of a certain breed of sheep, and matured in the natural caves near the town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in the Aveyron region of France, where it is colonised by the fungus Penicillium roqueforti that grows in these caves.
Due to the horizontal and exhaustive nature of the legal regime, this system transcends national appellation systems used throughout Europe, such as the appellation d'origine contrôlée used in France, the denominazione di origine controllata used in Italy, the denominação de origem controlada used in Portugal, the denumire de origine controlată system used in Romania and the denominación de origen system used in Spain. The regulations still allow member states to use their own languages in packaging, but geographical indications law is still the sole domain of the EU. The EU Commission has the final word on applications for protection.
A new EU Regulation on geographical indication protection for craft and industrial products was published on 27 October 2023 and entered into force on 16 November 2023. Producers and manufacturers of these products will be able to file applications for GI protection with the European Union Intellectual Property Office from 1 December 2025. Only the Protected Geographical Indication logo will be applicable for craft and industrial products.
Protection and enforcement
In countries where laws on protected geographical status are enforced, only products which meet the various geographical and quality criteria may use the protected indication. It is also prohibited to combine the indication with words such as "style", "type", "imitation", or "method" in connection with the protected indications or to do anything which might imply that the product meets the specifications, such as using distinctive packaging associated with the protected product.Protected indications are treated as intellectual property rights by the Customs Regulation 1383/2003, and infringing goods may be seized by customs on import. Within the European Union, enforcement measures vary: infringement may be treated as counterfeit, misleading advertising, passing off or even as a question of public health. Outside Europe, the protection of PGS products usually requires bilateral agreements between the EU and the importing countries, while protected indications may not always supersede other intellectual property rights such as trademarks.
On 15 November 2011, the European Court of Auditors presented its report Do the design and management of the geographical indications scheme allow it to be effective? to the European Parliament.
Objectives of the protection
The preambles to the regulations cite consumer demand for quality foodstuffs, and identify a number of goals for the protection regimes:- the promotion of products with specific characteristics, particularly those coming from less-favoured or rural areas;
- the improvement of the income of farmers, in return for a "genuine effort to improve quality";
- the retention of population in rural areas;
- the provision of clear and succinct information to consumers regarding product origin.
General regime
The general regime governs the use of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications for food and certain other agricultural products. There are separate regimes for spirits and aromatised drinks as well as for wines. The origin of the product is only one of the criteria for use of the protected terms: the product must also meet various quality criteria. The label "Traditional Specialities Guaranteed" is a similar protected term which does not impose any restrictions on the geographical origin of the product.The protection of geographical indications was extended to foodstuffs and other agricultural products in 1992. Given the widely different national provisions, this "general regime" gives much more power to the European Commission to ensure harmonised protection across the European Union. It is currently governed by the Regulation on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs.
To qualify for a PDO, the product must have qualities and characteristics which are essentially due to its region of production: it must also be produced, processed and prepared exclusively within that region. The requirements for a PGI are slightly less strict; a good reputation of a product from a given region is sufficient if any of the steps of production, processing and preparation may take place within the region. Otherwise, the protection afforded by the two terms is equivalent.
An application for a PDO or a PGI is first made to the authorities of the relevant Member State. It is judged by the Member State against the criteria in the Regulation and, if found to be acceptable, forwarded to the European Commission for final approval. Applications are published at both the national and Community stages of examination, and third parties can object to proposed PDOs or PGIs which they feel would harm their business. A recurrent objection is that the proposed denomination is a generic term for the product in question: generic names cannot be registered but, once registered, the denominations are protected from genericisation. Hence Cheddar cheese was deemed to be a generic name, but the PDO "West Country farmhouse Cheddar cheese" was allowed. Feta was deemed not to have become generic, and was registered as a PDO to the disappointment of cheesemakers outside of Greece.
Description of the regimes
Protected designation of origin (PDO)
The protected designation of origin is the name of an area, a specific place or, in exceptional cases, the name of a country, used as a designation for an agricultural product or a foodstuff,- which comes from such an area, place or country,
- whose quality or properties are significantly or exclusively determined by the geographical environment, including natural and human factors,
- whose production, processing and preparation take place within the determined geographical area.
Protected geographical indication (PGI)
The protected geographical indication is the name of an area, a specific place or, in exceptional cases, the name of a country, used as a description of an agricultural product or a foodstuff.- which comes from such an area, place or country,
- which has a specific quality, goodwill or other characteristic property, attributable to its geographical origin,
- at least one of the stages of production, processing or preparation takes place in the area.
Traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG)
The TSG quality scheme aims to provide a protection regime for traditional food products of a specific character. Differing from PDO and PGI, this quality scheme does not certify that the protected food product has a link to a specific geographical area and that a product can thus be produced outside the area or country from which it originates.To qualify for a TSG a food must be of "specific character" and either its raw materials, production method or processing must be "traditional". Under Art. 3 of Regulation 1151/12 "specific character" is defined as "the characteristic production attributes which distinguish a product clearly from other similar products of the same category". Under Art. 3 of Regulation 1151/12 "traditional" is defined as "proven usage on the domestic market for a period that allows transmission between generations; this period is to be at least 30 years".
For a food name to be registrable under the TSG scheme it must have been traditionally used to refer to the specific product; or identify the traditional character or specific character of the product.
A TSG creates an exclusive right over the registered product name. Accordingly, the registered product name can be used by only those producers who conform to the registered production method and product specifications.
"The legal function of the TSG is to certify that a particular agricultural product objectively possesses specific characteristics which differentiate it from all others in its category, and that its raw materials, composition or method of production have been consistent for a minimum of 30 years. Thus, TSG food denominations are registered trade signs with a distinctive function."
As of 14 November 2021, 65 TSG have been registered, all of which originate from the EU or the UK.