Alcoholic beverage requirements in the European Union and the United States

Abstract

Consumers rely upon wine labels to determine its type and origin. Such labels are usually the only resource that consumers have to determine if they should purchase that bottle of wine. Wine labels usually contain information like the name of the producer, bottler or importer. These labels usually also state the alcohol content, country of origin, type of wine and quality. The reasons why laws that regulate wine labels exist are numerous. For instance, such laws exist to prohibit wine producers, bottlers or importers from creating labels that give the impression that the wine is better than it actually is. Moreover, such laws exist to prohibit wine producers, bottlers or importers from creating labels that state that a wine is produced from one grape when it is in fact produced from another grape. This work follows issue-by-issue the labeling process for wine bottles and critically analyse the applicable laws in Malta and the United States by comparing and contrasting them. Cases that have arisen that have dealt with the labeling of wine bottles are also analysed. Besides these issues, this work also focuses on the legal complexities that international traders of wine have to deal with when importing and exporting wines from the United States to Malta and vice-versa.