National Consumers League Urges Congressional Action On Wine Labeling Laws
Published:29-June-2009
By Staff Reporter
Consumer rights group joins the US wine regions, members of congress in calling for fair and accurate wine labels
The National Consumers League (NCL), a consumer organization, has asked Members of Congress to support reform of the US wine labeling laws to protect consumers' right to truth in labeling. The US law allows some domestic winemakers to use the place names of 16 internationally recognized regions on wines that are not produced in those areas, which ends up misleading consumers.
NCL in its letter points out that the current state of US labeling laws means US winemaking regions have had to pursue state legislative fixes to correct a growing problem. Recently, Oregon and Washington states have both passed legislation to protect the names of wines produced in those states.
NCL has asked Members of Congress to join their colleagues who are calling on the US Treasury Department to, support reform of a broken system for protecting geographic identity and provide consumers with the accurate information they deserve.
Reforms include making US wine labeling laws more consistent with U.S. trademarks and phasing out labels that improperly use the names of other wine producing regions like Champagne.
Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of NCL, said: "These labeling problems mean both that wines can be sold abroad with labels that falsely suggest that they are from well known and highly-regarded winemaking regions in the U.S., and that American consumers may be victims of deceptive wine labeling.”
