Champagne fails to take food from kids’ mouths

Champagne trade body the Comité Champagne has failed in its attempt to stop children enjoying a fizzy drink called Champín.

Champín is a fruit-flavoured kids drink that sells for between €1.50 and €3.00, but the Comité Champagne said it was too similar to the sparkling wine (Photo: Champín)

The Comité took the children’s drink brand to court in Spain arguing that its brand name is too similar to “Champagne”.

The case went all the way to Spanish Supreme Court, but judges threw it out on Monday (7 March) saying the fruit-flavoured kids drink was “unconnected” with the French sparkling wine.

Any similarities between Champín and Champagne were “tenuous and irrelevant”, the court said.

The Champagne trade body is known for being incredibly protective of its brand name.

Last year it failed in its attempt to prevent wine educator Jayne Powell from using the Champagne Jayne moniker.

It argued to a court in Australia that she also promoted other forms of sparkling wine such as Prosecco and Cava, and should therefore be prevented from using the Champagne name.

However, the court ruled that the Comité had not done enough to convince it to rule against Powell.

In this latest case, the Comité Champagne urged the court to order the kids drink be stripped from shelves immediately.

The popular fizzy drink, which retails for between €1.50 and €3.00 in supermarkets across Spain, could lead consumers to think that it was made in the Champagne region, the Comité argued.

“It is a product totally alien to the wines under the Champagne domain”, Champín brand owner Industrias Espadafor said after the “triumphant victory” over the Comité.

The Comité Champagne has declined to comment.