Jürg Simon, Chair of the MARQUES GI Team, reports on a recent decision in favour of the appellation Champagne in Switzerland.

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court decided on the dispute about "Commune de Champagne PDO" in two judgments dated 23 December 2022 and 22 March 2022.

The Canton de Vaud had introduced, in January 2021, a protected designation of origin (PDO) "Commune de Champagne" for still white wines of the Chasselas grape grown in the municipality of Champagne.

The Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne CIVC challenged this legal act before the Constitutional Court of the Canton Vaud.

Court judgment

The Court agreed with the CIVC (judgment of 1 April 1 2021) that this new PDO contradicted the exclusive protection for the appellation "Champagne" for wines originating from France granted explicitly by Switzerland’s bilateral agreement of 1999 with the European Union on trade in agricultural products.

The Court ruled in essence that it cannot be assumed that the reference to the TRIPS Agreement of the WTO in the bilateral agreement would allow the homonymy exception of the TRIPS Agreement to be invoked successfully in all cases, since the text of Article 23 paragraph 3 of the TRIPS agreement leaves WTO Members a certain margin of appreciation as to the modalities for granting this homonymy exception.

Furthermore, the Swiss authorities had already accepted the validity of the exclusive protection of the appellation "Champagne", notwithstanding the homonymy with the municipality.

In a decision of 2 June 2016, the Federal Department of Finance had decided that the TRIPS Agreement did not render the 1999 bilateral agreement unlawful with respect to the absolute protection of the French appellation "Champagne".

Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court reached the same conclusion. The bilateral agreement provides for a strict regime for the appellation "Champagne", which excludes the homonymy exception for wines originating from the municipality of Champagne.

A Swiss regulation – in this case cantonal, given that appellations of origin of wines are cantonal, not federal law in Switzerland – that has the effect of overriding the exclusive protection of the appellation "Champagne" resulting from the bilateral agreement violates international law.

The appeals to the Swiss Supreme Court of the Canton de Vaud (22 March 2022), the Commune de Champagne and the Communauté de la vigne et du vin de la Commune de Champagne (23 December 2022) were rejected or not dealt with for fundamental procedural reasons. Links are here and here.

This decision concludes the dispute about the Champagne PDO in Switzerland.

Jürg Simon is Chair of the MARQUES GI Team and a Partner of Lenz & Staehelin in Zurich. He represented the CIVC in this case.

Picture of Champagne taken from Wikipedia.