The Memorandum of Understanding for the protection and enhancement of PDO and PGI wine productions was signed today on the eBay online platform. The agreement was signed between the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, eBay and the National Confederation of Voluntary Consortia for the Protection of Italian Vine Denominations (Federdoc), which represents over 90% of the entire Italian production of wines denomination of origin in terms of volumes and economic value.
The goal of the agreement is the implementation of promotion, enhancement, information and protection of productions in the wine sector on the eBay online platform, promoting the presence of authentic and quality Italian wines on the online market.
Italian PDO and PGI wines represent almost 40% of the entire Community denomination production and have a total production turnover of over 6 billion Euros. It is a heritage that institutions, associations and entrepreneurs intend to further guarantee on eBay, one of the largest online marketplaces in the world and the first in Italy, with over 4,5 million active users.
The protocol assigns a central role to the Verified Rights Owner - VeRO Program, a system launched by eBay in 1998 which today can count on over 40 active users, and which allows holders of intellectual property rights (such as copyright , registered trademarks or patents) to report any violations.
eBay is committed to remove the advertisements where violations relating to PDO and PGI wines are found. At the same time, the Fraud Repression Inspectorate (ICQRF) activates the ex officio protection procedures for products throughout the European Union to block the marketing of the detected products.
"The Protocol signed today follows the one already signed by Mipaaf, eBay and Aicig on 7 May 2014 for the promotion, enhancement, information and protection of quality agri-food products and confirms the path undertaken for the protection and promotion of Italian excellence on our platform" , explains Andrea Moretti, Head of Legal Affairs of eBay in Italy. "In particular, this memorandum of understanding not only constitutes a valuable tool for networking with institutions and consortia - underlines Moretti - but confirms our commitment to the fight against counterfeiting, which has always been one of the key issues for eBay and which binds us to the owners of intellectual property rights".
“Today's signing is an important piece of the strategy we have put in place – said Minister Martina – to protect the extraordinary heritage of Made in Italy. With great pride I want to point out that we are the only country in the world to have entered into such an agreement with an online platform the size of eBay, with 800 million listings worldwide. And the numbers prove us right: so far 160 Made in Italy fakes have been reported, for a value of around 50 million euros. In terms of the fight against counterfeiting, Italy can lead the way. We also demonstrated this in recent days at the international forum in Lodi, where 60 foreign delegates wanted to study our model. Today we complete the work by also protecting our wine excellence. The new frontier is the web and Italy is there”.
“We believe this initiative is very important for the quality wine sector. In fact, our Denomination of Origin wines need to be protected every day on all fronts against counterfeiting and usurpations, especially on the web". commented on President of Federdoc Riccardo Ricci Curbastro.
