Brussels, Nov 30 - A small Belgian brewer gained the upper hand over a top French champagne house on Thursday when an adviser to Europe's top court ruled it could use terms such as "Brut" or "Reserve" for its champagne-style beer.
De Landtsheer Emmanuel has been selling a beer produced with champagne-making methods under the name "Malheur Brut Reserve", proudly describing it as the world's first "Brut" beer and the Veuve-Clicquot of the beer world.
Veuve-Clicquot Ponsardin, part of LVMH, took action against De Landtsheer Emmanuel in Belgium for infringement of trade marks and breach of rules on consumer information and comparative advertising.
The Belgian Court, hearing this case on appeal after a first ruling in favour of Veuve-Clicquot, asked the European Court of Justice to clarify EU rules on comparative advertising.
In particular, it wanted to know whether companies were allowed to make a general comparison to a type of product and to determine whether there was a competitive relationship between two companies marketing different products.
By the time the case came before the European Court of Justice, De Landtsheer Emmanuel had stopped making references to Veuve-Clicquot.
The champagne-maker nevertheless wanted to halt Emmanuel's references to "method traditional", "brut" and "reserve" in its marketing because they were words associated with champagne. But Advocate-General Paolo Mengozzi said such words make reference to a type of product or company, not to a specific one -- such as Veuve-Clicquot -- because there are many makers of champagne, and therefore the marketing did not fall foul of the law.
"Such a reference cannot constitute an implicit identification of a competitor or the products offered by a competitor," the advocate-general said in a statement.
The European Court of Justice must still make its ruling, but it typically follows the opinion of the advocate general.