Beverages bearing the name "gin" must contain alcohol, Europe's top court declared on Thursday. 

The VSW German business association had appealed to the court, saying that a product sold by PB VI Goods and called "Virgin Gin Alkoholfrei" ("Non-alcoholic Virgin Gin") was in breach of a 2019 EU definition of gin. 

This states that "gin should be produced by flavouring ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin with juniper berries, and the minimum alcoholic strength by volume of that ethyl alcohol must be 37.5%," as the court put it in a press release.

'Clear prohibition' on non-alcoholic gin

A German court had passed the case on to the Court of Justice of the European Union , asking for its opinion on the necessity for gin to be intoxicating.

"The Court finds that there is a clear prohibition in EU law on presenting and labeling a beverage such as that in question as 'non-alcoholic gin,' due to the very fact that that beverage does not contain alcohol," the court wrote. "The fact that the legal name 'gin' is accompanied by the term 'non-alcoholic' is irrelevant in that regard."

However, the court stressed that this did not preclude the company from selling its product, merely from selling it with the word "gin" in its name.

"Moreover, that prohibition is proportionate, in so far as it is intended to protect consumers against the risk of confusion as to the composition of the products as well as gin producers complying with the requirements laid down in EU law against unfair competition," the court said. 

Edited by Sean Sinico