GLI ELEMENTI DELL’EVOCAZIONE DI UNA DOP NELLA VALUTAZIONE DEL GIUDICE: FATTORI DA CONSIDERARE E RILEVANZA DEI RICHIAMI ALL’ORIGINE NELLA PRESENTAZIONE DEI PRODOTTI GENERICI

[Machine translation] The article analyzes the decision of the Turin Court of Appeal of 14 May 2025 (decree of 10 September 2025) relating to the “Gran Riserva Italia” cheese, focusing on the constituent elements of the offense to evoke a protected designation of origin pursuant to art. 13 of regulation (EU) n. 1151/2012 [now art. 26 of regulation (EU) n. 2024/1143]. The ruling is part of the consolidated case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, but it presents profiles of particular interest due to the methodological clarity with which the appellate judge reconstructs the evaluation process required in the relevant disputes. After reconstructing the facts of the case and the arguments of the parties, the article highlights how the Turin Court has corrected an excessively atomistic approach adopted by the trial judge, reaffirming the need for an overall and synthetic evaluation of the elements relevant for the purpose of the evocation. In this perspective, the Court values not only the phonetic similarity between the denominations (“Gran”, “Riserva”), but also the comparability of the products, the manner of presentation, the shape and appearance of the cheeses, the use of fire-stamped marks and the marketing context in large organized retailers. Particularly important is the motivational passage in which the Court also attributes evocative value to the reference to national origin (“Italy”), considered suitable, in the overall context of the case, to suggest to the average European consumer about a geographical origin coinciding with that of the Grana Padano PDO. This approach makes it possible to critically reflect on the margins of lawfulness of voluntary references to the origin in generic products and marks a significant departure from previous more competitive national guidelines, such as the well-known ruling of the Court of Cassation on the “Altopiano di Asiago” brand. The article concludes by underlining how the decision of the Turin Court of Appeal provides a useful operational handbook for national judges, reinforcing the effectiveness of the protection of PDOs and clarifying the limits within which generic food producers can legitimately enter the market without incurring forms of parasitic attachment. The pronunciation therefore assumes a systematic importance in the context of European regulatory and jurisprudential evolution regarding protected designations of origin and geographical indications.