EU-Iceland agreement on the protection of geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs

SUMMARY OF:

EU-Iceland agreement on protecting geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs

Decision (EU) 2017/1912 concluding the EU-Iceland agreement on protecting geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs

Decision (EU) 2016/2136 signing the EU-Iceland agreement on protecting geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE AGREEMENT AND THE DECISIONS?

The agreement aims to ensure that import, export and marketing of products protected by an EU geographical indication (GI) is carried out in line with EU rules.
Decision (EU) 2016/2136 approves the signing of the agreement by the EU and Decision (EU) 2017/1912 concludes the agreement on behalf of the EU.

KEY POINTS

European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement

Trade relations between the EU and Iceland are mainly governed by the EEA Agreement (see summary).

Geographical indications

GIs protect the names of products that originate from specific regions and have specific qualities or enjoy a reputation linked to the region of production.
GIs form part of the EU quality schemes set out in Regulation 1151/2012 (see summary).

Scope

The agreement applies to the recognition and protection of GIs for agricultural products and food, excluding wines, aromatised wine products and spirit drinks (already covered by the EEA agreement), originating in the territories of the 2 parties.

Established geographical indications

Each party agrees to protect the GIs of the other party included in Annex II of the agreement.
Annex I sets out the elements for registering and checking, and the procedure for objecting to, new GIs.

Protection

GIs listed in Annex II to the agreement are protected against:

any direct or indirect commercial use of a protected name:
- for comparable products not compliant with the product specification of the protected name,
- if such use exploits the reputation of a geographical indication;
any misuse, imitation or evocation, even if the true origin of the product is indicated or if the protected name is translated, transcribed, transliterated or accompanied by an expression such as ‘style’, ‘type’, ‘method’, ‘as produced in’, ‘imitation’, ‘flavour’, ‘like’ or similar;
any other false or misleading indication as to the provenance, origin, nature or essential qualities of the product, on the inner or outer packaging, advertising material or documents relating to the product concerned, and the packing of the product in a container liable to convey a false impression as to its origin;
any other practice liable to mislead the consumer as to the true origin of the product.

Rights

A GI protected under the agreement may be used by anyone marketing agricultural products and foodstuffs conforming to the corresponding specification.
Once a GI is protected under this Agreement, the use of the protected name shall not be subject to any registration of users or further charges.

Trademarks

Both parties agree to annul or refuse to register a trademark which breaches the rules protecting the GIs included in the agreement, if an application to register to the GI preceded the trademark application.

Cooperation

A Joint Committee of representatives from both parties oversees the implementation and functioning of the agreement.

DATE OF ENTRY INTO FORCE

It entered into force on 1 May 2018.

BACKGROUND

For more information, see:

Quality labels (European Commission)
Geographical indications (European Commission)
Trade – Iceland (European Commission).

MAIN DOCUMENTS

Agreement between the European Union and Iceland on the protection of geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs (OJ L 274, 24.10.2017, pp. 3-56)

Council Decision (EU) 2017/1912 of 9 October 2017 on the conclusion of the Agreement between the European Union and Iceland on the protection of geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs (OJ L 274, 24.10.2017, pp. 1-2)

Council Decision (EU) 2016/2136 of 21 November 2016 on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and Iceland on the protection of geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs (OJ L 332, 7.12.2016, pp. 1-2)