Still appear fraud cases and forgeries in Denominations of Origin. On this occasion the forgeries have been discovered in three Catalan Denominations of Origin such as: DO Montsant, DO Terra Alta and DO Ca. Priorat. These Denominations of Origin reported last July a possible fraud that has been the reason that has led to this investigation.
After these investigations by the Mossos d'Esquadra a whopping 750.000 bottles of wine have been seized. The company that allegedly carried out the scam and sold these wines was the wine producer Earth Reserve from the town of Les Borges del Camp (Tarragona). According to the first investigations, it is believed that this company sold about 10 million fraudulent bottles of wine per year since 2017. In these four years, more than 30 million fraudulent bottles of wine have been placed on the market. of the aforementioned Denominations of Origin.
Fraud and falsification of logos of the Denominations of Origin
In the registry carried out by the Catalan police, more than 3 million false guarantee badges of the three Denominations of Origin have been discovered. The wine was marketed under 20 brands own of the investigated company. The company traded completely legal distribution chains.
The quality badges were printed imitating the legal ones and repeating the legally assigned numbering. For their part, the police have ordered four distribution chains to stop marketing these wines until the facts are clarified. The order to stop this commercialization has been carried out to avoid fraud since there is no public health risk.
The company and its managers they are being investigated for fraud, crimes against industrial property, counterfeiting and misleading advertising.
Brands affected by fraud
The brands affected in this fraud of the three Denominations of Origin are. of the DO Ca Priorat: "Heredad Mestral 2017", "Heredad Mestral Ciervo", "Vega Escal 2016 and 2017", Clos Roja 2017 "," Slates of Bonmont 2017 "and" Viña Carles 2017 ". In the case of DO Montsant affects the brands «Heredad Centum 2017» and «Carles Heredad» from 2019. In the case of the DO Terra Alta the affected brands are «Vesprals» Gran Reserva 2014, Reserva 2016 and 2017 and Crianza 2016, 2017 and 2018, «Harmonico Selección» from 2017 and 2018, «Harmonico Gran Selección» from 2016 and 2017, «Graphic Gran Selección» 2018, « Red Escal Gran Reserva »2015,« Heredad Cheroga »from 2018 and« Cheroga »from 2018 and« Graphic Selection »2019.
Little control over fraud
All of this points back to a little control of fraud and quality systems of these that undoubtedly need to be improved or strengthened. All this is evidenced by the fact that after such a large quantity was marketed there were only some suspicions of irregularities. The damage produced in the market to these three Denominations of Origin is much higher than the cost of improving control. Promotion campaigns are useless in the national and international market when cases of such important fraud are repeatedly uncovered.
