Brussels, 04/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has warned ICANN, the global internet regulator in charge of validating domain names, in no uncertain terms that the granting of the first-level names “.vin” and “.wine” with no protection for geographical indications would be unacceptable.
In a statement published on 2 April, European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos said that ICANN's plans to grant the first-level domain names “.vin” and “.wine” on the Internet was “simply not acceptable (…) without specific safeguards for geographical indications” (GIs), as “clearly” called for by the Commission and many governments. ICANN, a body which represents the internet industry at global level, is very close to the American government.
Protection rules of this kind for GIs, which are provided for by the WTO and a number of bilateral agreements with third countries, “must be respected for the internet”, the European commissioner stresses. In the event that it is not possible to obtain “sufficiently robust safeguards” on the introduction of new sub-domains, “it would be preferable to avoid the creation of these domains altogether”, he suggested. He argues that it is a critical issue, also for the “long-term credibility of the internet itself”.
The “.vin” and “.wine” dossier was unsuccessfully discussed once again at the most recent session of ICANN in Singapore between 23 and 27 March. The day before, the body had published a resolution consisting of continuing the process of allocating domain names with no protection safeguards for geographical indications. This proposal was unsatisfactory to the European position and ignores the idea of seeking consensus, in line with the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), ICANN's inter-governmental consultative arm, on which the European Commission and several member states of the EU have seats.
The wine sector is attempting to negotiate a solution with the three companies which have applied for the “.vin” and “.wine” sub-domain names, for example by securing the domain names.
On 19 March, ahead of the meeting in Singapore, the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, wrote to the board of governors of ICANN to express his deep concern over the potential impact of the allocation of “.vin” and “.wine” on European rights holders, consumers and producers if geographical indications are not clearly protected (see EUROPE 11044). At the end of March, the French foreign minister indicated that he attached “the greatest importance to the protection of indications of origin within all fora, including the internet”.
In Washington on 14 March, the American Department of Trade stated its intention of calling a meeting of “all players in the world to reflect on various options” to make it possible to withdraw the central role of the US government in the supervision of ICANN. This announcement was described as “highly opportune” by Commissioner for the Digital Strategy Neelie Kroes, ahead of the summit on global internet governance in São Paulo on 23 and 24 April. In the meantime, ICANN continues to administer domain names. (LC)