In vino veritas… or not

Beware of the labels on your wine bottles, they sometimes hide an unpleasant surprise.

Some inhabitants of the Sarthe region in France (among others) have recently experienced this when they thought they were buying Bordeaux wines.

It is well known that Bordeaux wines have a long-standing reputation for quality, dating back to the beginning of the Second Empire, and that this reputation is still very much alive and well, since consumers still turn to these wines quite easily and naturally.

The temptation is therefore great for some malicious people to increase their profits by trickery.

This is how the police services were recently able to dismantle a large-scale fraud organized by the owner of a vineyard and wine merchant in the Médoc (region of France).

The scam was quite classic. This producer obtained wine in Spain, which he bottled in a typical Bordeaux bottle, then printed a large number of labels under the Bordeaux appellation, while bottling operations could take place at night.

He then sold these wines in large quantities via his network of official distributors and a more unofficial and heterogeneous network composed of companies, retired people, self-employed people…

The affair was well organized! According to the public prosecutor’s office, the customers thought they were buying Bordeaux wines “whose name and label inspired confidence, at prices that sometimes defied all competition” whereas the bottles contained “low-end wines or wines from quite distant regions“.

The fraud is estimated at several hundred thousand bottles.

Caught by the justice system, the swindlers are facing penalties for organized fraud and money laundering, deception and falsification of goods.

Counterfeiting of various Bordeaux Protected Designations of Origin

In addition to sanctions related to the deception of consumers, this case is an opportunity to note that we are also faced with a counterfeiting of various Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) of Bordeaux, which can therefore be punished criminally by a prison sentence of two years and a fine of 300,000 Euros, not to mention the compensation that will certainly be claimed by the Conseil interprofessionnel du vin de Bordeaux, in charge of defending the PDO Bordeaux.

Thus, if the profit seemed easy and lucrative, so was the risk of punishment and, as the Martinique proverb says, “too much profit buries the pocket“.

− Philippe BOHLAND, Intellectual Property Attorney and Partner at Mark & Law