No to the Wine Kit Amarone: the Valpolicella Consortium wins against counterfeiting

If you buy an Amarone kit, that is not Amarone

Significant success of the Consortium for Protection of Valpolicella Wines in the fight against counterfeiting: removed from websites some of the kits for "do it by yourself" wines attributable to the Valpolicella Doc denominations. The Consortium has decided to act directly as a result of the information received by the Chamber of Commerce of Verona and the Presidency of the Federdoc related to the discovery of kits for the production Valpolicella wines and other denominations on the international market. In the example of the actions taken by the chamber of commerce for the protection of the collective brand, through a law firm in charge proceeded to the on line purchasing of the reported packs and to the identification of the information contained on the label. At the same time, Federdoc sent a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to urge appropriate action against these counterfeits sold in the network, which damage brands and consumers.

In light of the carried out investigations, and in the pursuit of the goal of eliminating the visibility of these products which are sold primarily through the Internet, a mandate was given to the law firm to request the elimination of ads that promote and offer for sale the wine making kit AMARONE ( or even VALPOLICELLA) from the sites of e-commerce. In addition, an injunction to producers of the kits was sent, because of their deceptive nature, a request that with reference to the British company is based on Community legislation (being the United Kingdom in the European Union), for the protection of the traditional AMARONE brand.

The initiative had the desired result, since the injunction sent by local colleagues to the British company distributor of the wine making kit AMARONE, had the effect of removing the kits from the website. The same company appeared to be the producer of an own personal line called WineWorks, that with its name put on sale a SUPERIOR VALPOLICELLA kit. Even this kit has been removed from the Internet.

Moreover, on www.amazon.co.uk and www.ebay.co.uk the wine making kit AMARONE for sale disappeared, while a few weeks ago there were a couple of ads. It is, therefore, reasonable to consider that the injunction had a deterrent effect even on other subjects.

It should be emphasized that the contacts with the British government authorities seem to highlight the willingness to make official interventions to crack down on cases of forgery and misappropriation in the specific wine sector. For what concerns the websites www.amazon.com and www.ebay.com, instead, there is the risk that possible disputes are subject to extra-European jurisdictions, where the instruments of protection are less effective. In any case, satisfaction was expressed by the President of the Consortium for Protection of Valpolicella wines, Christian Marchesini, who stressed the continued commitment of the Consortium in defense of the wines of the denomination, evidenced also by the consistent financial commitment destined at the time of approval of the budget, during the last meeting.

m.st.