Spain: "Made in Spain" – How reliable is information about origin?

In Spain, the protection of designations of origin (DOP) and protected geographical information (IGP) is currently granted by EU law, namely by various regulations, depending on the type of product to which the designation of origin or geographical information relates.

At the national level, regulations regarding DOP and IGP are mainly found in the regional legislation, since the responsibility lies with the autonomous communities, unless the DOP or IGP have a broader territorial scope. In this case, a national law is applicable.

Unfair competition as a supplementary protective mechanism

The European legislation determines the scope of the protection of the DOP, but does not specify any specific procedural mechanisms and thus leaves the national legislators room to manoeuvre.

In Spain, this protection is guaranteed by unfair competition legislation, which plays a supplementary role in this area. It is therefore possible that one and the same conduct constitutes a violation of the protection of protected designations of origin granted in the European Regulation and at the same time includes one of the competition violations typical in the Unfair Competition Act (LCD).

Concept of “allusion”

Relevant judgments have also been issued in Spain on the term “allusion”. European case law understands this to mean a case designation in which “the expression used to designate a product includes a part of a protected designation [...], so that the consumer is prompted by the name of the product to mentally establish a reference to the goods that bears the designation”.

According to Spanish case law, there is an “allusion” if the definition of the European regulations is fulfilled, even if the labelling on the product indicates the origin and type of the actual product. Likewise, an “allusion” can be made by using symbols that remind the consumer of the geographical location associated with the DOP.

An example of this is the case of “Manchego cheese” and concerns a dispute settled in 2019 between the supervisory authority and a company that marketed cheese with labels, on which a knight similar to Don Quixote and the name “Quesos Rocinante” could be seen. These elements are linked to the La Mancha region and the Roman Don Quixote de La Mancha. However, these types of cheese do not fall under the DOP “Queso Manchego”. The Spanish Supreme Court of Justice submitted a question to the ECJ regarding the preliminary ruling, which decided that the use of symbols that are reminiscent of a geographical area associated with a DOP can represent an “allusion” to this DOP. The company was therefore ordered to cease using these elements.

Autor: Axel Roth