“Feta cheese is Greek,” says the EU’s top court.
The European Union’s top court has ruled against Denmark and says the country has mislabeled white cheese as “feta”.
The decision is a victory for Greece, which has been fighting to protect its intellectual property right to use the term for dairy products.
Denmark has allowed local producers to continue exporting cheese to non-EU countries under the protected designation of “feta”, the EU Court of Justice said on Thursday.
The decision comes after a senior EU judicial adviser said in March that Denmark had breached its obligations under EU law.
The Danish authorities should have “prevented and prohibited such use on its territory”, the Luxembourg court said in a statement.
Greece claims that feta, made from sheep’s and goat’s milk, has been part of its cultural heritage for 6,000 years.
It was designated a traditional Greek product by the EU executive in 2002, giving it legal protection in the bloc.
On the other hand, Denmark had argued that banning its producers from exporting white cheese could limit foreign trade.
And in 2005, the EU court ruled that only Greece-based producers reserved the right to call its sheep’s milk cheese “feta”, rejecting a German-Danish appeal.
But Denmark has since allowed its cheese makers to continue using the name when exporting the product outside the EU.
If the country refuses to comply with the latest decision, the European Commission can appeal the fines.