Brussels, 18/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has toughened its stance in its negotiations with Icann, the American organisation which governs domain names, about the allocation of the “.vin” and “.wine” strings (see EUROPE 10916). In a letter dated 12 September, the commissioner with responsibility for the digital strategy, Neelie Kroes, repeated her request to Icann not to continue with the allocation strategy until sufficient protection for the appellations of origin is in place. “Our position remains firm: under no circumstances can we accept '.vin' and '.wine' on the internet without sufficient guarantees to effectively protect the rights and interests of the holders of geographical indications and those of wine consumers”, the commissioner writes.
The row started a year ago, when Icann began a procedure making it possible to delegate new first-level generic domain names in addition to those which already exist, such as “.eu” and “.org”. These included “.vin” and “.wine”. Three companies applied for the allocation and management of a new “.wine” domain: June Station LLC (United States), Afilias Limited (Ireland) and dot Wine Limited (Gibraltar). A fourth candidate applied for the management of the “.vin” domain: Holly Shadow LLC (United States), which is owned by June Station. The producers of European wines and the large wine-producing member states immediately expressed concern at the possible impact of this project. Their concern was that these companies, which have no links with the wines, could circumvent the European rules protecting these appellations and market second-level domain names (such as “rioja.wine” or “bordeaux.vin”), which bear no relation to the wine produced in the region concerned. The dispute was debated in Durban in July during an Icann summit, which then gave the protagonists a month to agree, which they failed to do. Together with commissioners Dacian Cilos (agriculture) and Michel Barnier (single market), Kroes undertook to fight to protect European interests. In her letter, she said that she was “confident that the talks between the organisations which hold geographical indications and the applicants for the domain names will lead to an agreement”, but that, in the meantime, she hoped that Icann would uphold the suspension of the operation. In a joint press release, the Confédération nationale des producteurs de vins et eaux-de-vie de vin à appelations d'origine contrôlée (Cnaoc) and the European Federation of Origin Wines (Efow) welcomed the support provided by the Commission: “Icann and the applicants should be aware that they are facing a united front at the European level”. (IL/transl.fl)