Order — ECLI:EU:C:2008:341
Date: 2008-06-12
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Second Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Accession;Agriculture and Fisheries;Intellectual, industrial and commercial property;Consumer protection;Wine
Concepts: GATT and WTO;Act of Accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia;Description and presentation of wines
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Order 1. Accession of new Member States to the Communities – Hungary – Common organisation of the markets – Wine – Description and presentation of wines (Act of Accession 2003, Art. 2; Commission Regulations Nos 753/2002 and 1429/2004) 2. Agriculture – Common organisation of the markets – Wine – Description and presentation of wines (Council Regulation No 1493/1999, Art. 53; Commission Regulation No 753/2002) 3. Agriculture – Common organisation of the markets – Wine – Description and presentation of wines (Art. 34(2), second subpara., EC; Commission Regulation No 753/2002, Art. 19) 4. Agriculture – Common organisation of the markets – Wine – Description and presentation of wines (Commission Regulation No 753/2002, Art. 19(2)) 5. Agriculture – Common organisation of the markets – Wine – Description and presentation of wines (TRIPS Agreement, Arts 23 and 24; Council Regulation No 1493/1999, Art. 50; Commission Regulation No 753/2002) 1. The Act concerning the conditions of accession to the European Union of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded is to be interpreted as meaning that, in accordance with Article 2 of that act, in so far as the provisions laid down in Regulation No 753/2002 laying down certain rules for applying Regulation No 1493/1999 as regards the description, designation, presentation and protection of certain wine sector products prohibit use of the term ‘Tocai’ to describe and present certain Italian quality wines, produced in a specified region, after the expiry on 31 March 2007 of a transitional period – a prohibition first laid down in the EC-Hungary Agreement on wines – they form an integral part of the acquis communautaire as it stood on 1 May 2004 and, after being reproduced in Regulation No 1429/2004, amending Regulation No 753/2002, they have continued to apply after that date. (see paras 60, 68, 71, operative part 1) 2. Article 53 of Regulation No 1493/1999 on the common organisation of the market in wine constitutes an adequate legal basis for the adoption by the Commission of the provisions laid down in Regulation No 753/2002 laying down certain rules for applying Regulation No 1493/1999 as regards the description, designation, presentation and protection of certain wine sector products and reproduced in Regulation No 1429/2004, the effect of which is to prohibit use of the term ‘Tocai’ to describe and present certain Italian quality wines, produced in a specified region, after the expiry on 31 March 2007 of a transitional period. In adopting the provisions of Regulations Nos 753/2002 and 1429/2004 concerning that prohibition, the Commission merely set out a series of enacting terms already contained in a bilateral agreement, namely the EC-Hungary Agreement on wines, which were later, as acquis communautaire, reproduced in the Act of Accession. (see paras 73, 79, operative part 2) 3. The second subparagraph of Article 34(2) EC does not preclude the provisions laid down in Regulation No 753/2002 laying down certain rules for applying Regulation No 1493/1999 as regards the description, designation, presentation and protection of certain wine sector products and reproduced in Regulation No 1429/2004, the effect of which is to prohibit use of the term ‘Tocai’ to describe and present certain Italian quality wines, produced in a specified region (‘psr’), after the expiry on 31 March 2007 of a transitional period. The source of those provisions is a bilateral agreement. Similar measures are typically to be found in a series of bilateral agreements on trade in wine concluded by the Community with third States. They are measures which are introduced gradually in order to resolve the difficulties concerning the designation of wines which arise in connection with trade in those products. Moreover, the priority given to the geographical indication over the vine variety name which resembles it is consistent with the provision made overall by Article 19 of Regulation No 753/2002 and with the general scheme of that article, under which the variety name may not appear on the label of a wine if it includes a geographical indication used to describe a quality wine psr. The prohibition on the use of such a name is therefore the general rule. It is only ‘by way of derogation’ from that general rule that the use of such a name is permitted and then only under the national and Community rules in force on the date of entry into force of that regulation. (see paras 84, 89, 91-92, operative part 3) 4. Article 19(2) of Regulation No 753/2002 laying down certain rules for applying Regulation No 1493/1999 as regards the description, designation, presentation and protection of certain wine sector products – under which a vine variety name which includes a geographical indication used to describe a quality wine produced in a specified region (‘psr’) may, by way of derogation and under certain conditions, appear on the label of a wine – must be interpreted as not precluding the provisions laid down in Regulation No 753/2002 and reproduced in Regulation No 1429/2004, the effect of which is to prohibit use of the term ‘Tocai’ to describe and present certain Italian quality wines psr after the expiry on 31 March 2007 of a transitional period. (see paras 94-95, operative part 4) 5. Article 50 of Regulation No 1493/1999 on the common organisation of the market in wine must be interpreted as meaning that, for the purposes of implementing Articles 23 and 24 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (‘the TRIPS Agreement’), which constitutes Annex 1C to the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation (WTO), approved by Decision 94/800 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994) and, in particular, Article 24(6) of that agreement, those provisions do not preclude the adoption of measures such as those laid down in Regulation No 753/2002 laying down certain rules for applying Regulation No 1493/1999 as regards the description, designation, presentation and protection of certain wine sector products and reproduced in Regulation No 1429/2004, the effect of which is to prohibit use of the term ‘Tocai’ to describe and present certain Italian quality wines, produced in a specified Italian region, after the expiry on 31 March 2007 of a transitional period. Article 24(6) of the TRIPs Agreement, which permits inter alia the Community, as a Member of the WTO, to apply the provisions of that agreement in respect of a geographical indication of any other Member of the WTO with respect to products of the vine for which the relevant indication is identical with the customary name of a grape variety existing in the territory of a Member State as of the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement, establishes a right and not an obligation for the Community to grant protection to a Community grape or vine variety, in particular if that variety is the homonym of a geographical indication relating to a wine originating in a third State. (see paras 101-103, operative part 5)