From www.vinimarket.com this morning.
A plea for more wine on the Internet
Talking about wine in France is not just a dangerous cause, it has also become a losing battle over the last few weeks. First a French newspaper was fined for inducing the preposterous idea that champagne might be an enjoyable drink, then the Heineken website was forced to close a couple of its windows, and then Microsoft announced to its clients that the keywords and an advertisement related to wine would be removed from their website.
The fine line between promoting and advertising, information and publicity seems to be made of a certain shade of red that French judges can't see, due to some selective colour-blindness. There was hope, in France, that the government would tackle the issue promptly after the last election. Wine professionals are still waiting. There is nothing written in the French Law as to how they should handle information, promotion and advertisng on wine on the Internet. Judges have interpreted the silence of the Law as an invitation to apply the status of all other media to the Internet in that matter. But, for many reasons, we believe that Internet is not like any other media, hence deserves to be treated differently. Wine professionals are still struggling. We'll keep you informed
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