July 21: Wine Australia has suspended indefinitely the export licence for a Chinese owned Australian wine company, Dalefold, after it was found selling three Penfolds lookalike labels in China without its clearance, in the first such case after the trade organisation was given wider power in April this year to protect Australian wineries’ intellectual property rights in export markets
The Board of Wine Australia, the federal government agency that oversees Australia’s $20 billion wine industry, has suspended the licence to export wines from Australia with immediate effect. This is the first time a licence has been suspended since new wider regulatory powers were introduced in April this year, giving teeth to the organisation.
Dalefold also claims to have a long-term stable relationship with Australia’s five-star winery Maxwell Wines which however says it sold Daleford in 2016 and visited its warehouse in Shanghai on one occasion.
Following an investigation, Wine Australia decided that Dalefold Wines had engaged in activity that aims to leverage from the reputation of another wine brand (Penfolds) in China by causing consumer confusion. Penfolds is one of the most renowned Australian brands in the world-backed by its iconic brands like Grange and has been in the Chinese market for around 25 years with an export of over a billion Aussie dollars. Its Chinese market alone represents over 40% of its total sales and is its biggest export market. Incidentally, it is exported to India through Brindco after a long-time tie up with Mohan Bros.
Penfolds parent company had claimed a couple of months back that China had slowed down the customs clearance of its products, because of a political rift between the two countries. Not all exporting companies voiced the opinion, with some even feeling that it had a lot of previous shipments stuck in the warehouses in China, unable to be sold.
Wine Australia has asked for more information from Dalefold Wines before deciding the length of the suspension or even cancelling the license. Dalefold is contemplating appealing against the decision, according to the report
This is not the first time Penfolds and its parent company Treasury Wine Estates, have found and tried to stop the copycats. It is perhaps the most counterfeited wine in China-certainly out of all the Australian exports due to the brand popularity of Penfolds. It won a case against a company making Ben Fu (translated name of the company in Chinese) brand of wines where the Chine court supported TWE’s lawful right to use and market the Ben Fu trademark in China. Another case against Rush Rich wine was filed earlier in February this year. Based in Adelaide, South Australia, the Rush Rich is believed to be sourced and bottled through bulk wine suppliers and then re-exported under labels that are look-alikes of Penfolds’ wines. Apparently, the owner of this winery is also a Chinese.
.According to its website which is totally in Chinese language and has images of Dalefold wine with branding similar to the Penfolds label, the company claims to be mainly engaged in the import of Australian original bottles of wine. Dalefold belongs to Win Europe International Trade Co., Ltd. which is a subsidiary of Jiu Dai Holdings Group (China) Co., Ltd. and is headquartered in Shanghai, according to the website, translated by Business Insider. The company claims to have not only invested heavily in the acquisition of Australia’s Dalefold winery, but also has a long-term stable relationship with Australia’s five-star winery Maxwell,’ says the website.
Subhash Arora
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