Non-alcoholic drinks cannot be described or labelled as ‘gin’, an EU court has ruled.
The verdict, by the EU’s Court of Justice in Luxembourg, decreed that only spirit drinks based on ethyl alcohol flavoured by juniper berries with a minimum alcoholic strength of 37.5% by volume can be known as gin.
The case was brought by a German association against unfair competition, Verband Sozialer Wettbewerb, against PB Vi Goods, which makes a non-alcoholic drink called Virgin Gin Alkoholfrei.
PB Vi Goods had sought to argue that it was obvious from the name that the product was a non-alcoholic drink.
However, the judges in Luxembourg said EU law made clear that the name was prohibited, and the qualifier “non-alcoholic” was “irrelevant”.
The ruling does not prevent Virgin Gin Alkoholfrei from being sold, but the product must change its name to remove the use of the word gin.
Many major gin brands including Gordon’s, Tanqueray and Beefeater now produce alcohol-free versions of their products. However, these products are not labelled as gin, instead trading off the association consumers have between the brand name and the drink gin.
One brand that could be affected, however, is Lyre’s. The brand rebranded its London Dry Spirit as ‘Gin Alternative’ as part of a global refresh last month.
The Gin Guild, the trade association that represents gin producers’ interests globally, has previously threatened legal action against suppliers using the term gin to market and sell products that do not meet the EU’s definition.
“We welcome this decision – it upholds integrity in the gin category and protects producers who invest in the craft of gin distillation,” said Pal Gleed, director general of the Gin Guild. “It means the word ‘gin’ remains a meaningful guarantee of alcohol-based botanical spirit, rather than a marketing label for a very different product.”
It comes after the EU last month moved to ban the use of 29 key ‘meaty’ words when describing plant-based versions of certain foods.
MEPs voted in favour of a proposal to restrict or ban the use of words like “burger,” “sausage,” and “steak” for plant-based products. These terms should only be reserved for products containing actual animal meat, the proposal said.
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