Protecting the Integrity of Consumer Information and the Supply Chain of Wine in China

ABSTRACT

China is expected to become the second biggest wine market in the world by 2021. This explosive growth and consumers’ relative lack of knowledge about grape-based wine quality makes this market especially attractive for counterfeiters. This Article appraises a plethora of laws that deal with the protection of consumer information integrity relevant to the wine drinking consumer in China, and subsequently sets out why an integration of these laws is needed and how technology, such as blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT) can help the integrity of the supply chain, which in turn contributes to consumer information integrity.

This Article proceeds as follows. Section 1 examines the protection of the integrity of information to protect the wine drinker in China as a consumer, exploring Consumer Protection Law, Product Quality Law, Advertisement Law and Anti-Unfair Competition Law. Then, Sections 2-4 cover China’s complex mixture of ways to protect specific information regarding the geographical origin, quality and reputation: geographical indications (GIs). Section 2 examines China’s “New World” way to protect GIs: via certification and collective trademarks. Section 3 focuses on China’s “Old World” way to protect GIs: via two different sui generis systems; of the Ministry of Agriculture for domestic GIs and AQSIQ (SIPO will take over the registration and administration of AQSIQ) for domestic and foreign GIs. Section 4 discusses the bilateral GI agreements China has signed with other countries and with the EU. Section 5 proposes a technological way of guaranteeing the integrity of the supply chain via technology including blockchain in combination with the Information of Things (IoT). Followed by the conclusion in Section 6, which points to an amelioration of the efficacy of the bureaucracies involved in the supervision and enforcement of consumer information integrity and the need for a concomitant integration of the laws in this regard. 

Read more on SSRN, ResearchGate, Academia or IP Dragon.

Suggested citation:

Danny Friedmann, Protecting the Integrity of Consumer Information and the Supply Chain of Wine in China, CONSUMER PROTECTION IN CHINA: CURRENT CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS’ (Fernando Dias Sim?es ed.) Leiden: Brill, forthcoming 2019.

Read also:

Geographical Indications in the EU, China and Australia; WTO Case Bottling Up Over Prosecco;

TPP’s Coup de Grace: How the Trademark System Prevailed as Geographical Indication System;

Watch also my video presentation and read my short article on geographical indications: Clash of the Old and the New World of Wine in China | A Case Study of Competition, Innovation and Prosecco at the site of the EU Centre for Global Affairs of the University of Adelaide, see here.