(BRUSSELS) - Cheese marketed as "Parmesan" must come from Italy, Europe's highest court ruled on Tuesday, rejecting the notion that the name is generic and therefore not protected.

"Only cheeses bearing the protected designation of origin (PDO) 'Parmigiano Reggiano' can be sold under the name 'Parmesan'," the court ruled in a boost to cheesemakers in Parma and the surrounding region of northern Italy.

The PDO system gives the cheese, often used as topping for pasta, the same protection enjoyed in Europe by such products as French Camembert or Champagne.

The bad news for the Italian producers was that the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg also ruled that it was not up to Germany to take action against non-Italian parmesan on its supermarket shelves.

That is up to the country from where the fake product originates, the court ruled.

"A member state is not obliged to take on its own initiative the measures required in order to penalise the infringement on its territory of PDOs from another member state," the ruling stated.

Cheesemakers in the northern Italian region have been fighting to protect their product from non-authentic copies from elsewhere.

The European Commission brought Germany to the court for allowing cheese bearing the parmesan name to be sold despite the name protection.

The court rejected the argument that the word Parmesan was not included in the PDO and therefore could be considered just a generic term.

Parmigiano Reggiano has been protected in the EU since 1996.

Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-132/05
Commission / Germany (pdf)

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