La lettre envoyée à l'attention de:
- Dr Chair, ICANN Board;
- Mr Padi Chehadé, President and CEO;
- Mr Cherine Chalaby, New gTLD Programme Committee
Dear Sirs,
As President of the European Parliament, l would like to share the views of the European Parliament on the delegation by ICANN ofthe “.Wine” and “.Vin”.
The European Parliament has been closely following, over the past year, the ongoing discussions on the delegation of the “.wine” and “.vin” in the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). Commissioner Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, and her have been regularly informing the European Parliament, in particular the Wine lntergroup, on all the initiatives the European Commission and its Member States have been taking to protect European producers and consumers. Furthermore, Commission officials in charge of international trade negotiations have recently updated the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament on this issue.
EU geographical indications (GIs) in the wine sector are protected under Regulation 1308/2013 (which replaced former Regulation 1234/2007 on 1St January 2014). Regulation 1308/2013 has been adopted with a nearly two third majority by the European Parliament on 20 November 2013. The European Parliament therefore asks you to ensure that this regulation is respected if the “.Wine” and “.Vin” domain names are delegated,
The European Parliament has always been a strong supporter of Gls and advocates for an efficient and greater protection of these products in all forums. Our institution firmly believes that GIs are one of Europe’s greatest assets and as such must be safeguarded.
Therefore our Members are extremely concerned with the implications the delegation of the “.vine” and “.vin” may have on European right holders, producers and consumers. In fact, if no clear protection against misuses of our Gls is provided for, domain names such as “champagne.vin”, “rioja.wine”, “chianti.wine” “port.vin”, “mosel.wine”, “rhine.vin” and many others may be registered by firms or individuals having no link with the Gl in question. This Would not only have significant consequences for producers (cybersquatting, GI abuses and misappropriation, unfair competition) but it would also greatly impact consumers whose ability to make an informed choice on the Internet would be seriously jeopardised (product deception, counterfeits, etc).
The European Parliament fully supports the position expressed by the European Commission in the letter addressed to the ICANN Board on 3 February. lf these discussions do not bear fruit, the European Parliament will give its full backing to the European Commission and its Member States in calling for the rejection of .Vin
Yours sincerely,
Martin Schulz
Président du Parlement européen
Copy:
- Ms Astrid Lulling, Member ofthe European Parliament's Bureau and Quaestors;
- Ms Amalia Sartori, Chair ofthe Committee on Industry, Research and Energy;
- Mr Paolo De Castro, Chair ofthe Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
