Government to strengthen wine export regulation

WFA has been working with the Australian government for a number of months, investigating options to strengthen the wine export regulatory system to deal with potential intellectual property infringements.

The Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) released a consultation paper and call for industry feedback on a proposal, to develop a new Wine Export Label Directory.

The intention of the new directory is to enable brand owners to monitor potential infringements to their intellectual property, thus protecting against the export of ‘copy-cat’ products.

The development of a new national Wine Export Label Directory of publicly searchable wine label Intellectual Property (IP) will enable brand owners to identify infringements of their IP and to take action to protect their rights.

It will also allow for closer regulatory cooperation with the authorities in major export markets.

WFA said this is an important step to protection of the Australian Wine brand and has the potential to deliver increased integrity for our export control systems.

This builds on Wine Australia’s increased regulatory powers which came into force in April 2018.

Tony Battaglene, WFA chief executive said he welcomes the proposal put forth by the Australian government.

“The Australian wine sector has stringent export control measures in place to protect our brand overseas, and this is another string in our bow.

“This is a highly important additional step in strengthening our industries risk management and brand integrity.

“This is not only important for big brands, but provides an important part of our risk mitigation strategy for exports from all companies, no matter their size. All Australian wine brand should welcome this proposal,” he said.

The proposal and information about providing feedback are available at: https://haveyoursay.agriculture.gov.au/wine-labels