Products named after a place get new rules: three producers minimum, 50% representativeness and a route to worldwide protection

A cheese, a plum brandy or a sausage that carries the name of the place it comes from is worth more on the shelf than the same product with no name attached. To defend that name, though, producers have to organise themselves, and from 13 August 2026 it is clear exactly how. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 671 of 13 August 2026 two orders that complement each other: Order no. 212/2026 approves the regulation on the recognition of producer groups for products with a geographical indication, and Order no. 214/2026 approves the procedure by which Romania seeks international protection for such names. They are the first implementing rules for the new European framework, and they follow the month in which the ministry also rewrote APIA’s system of penalties for payment claims.

Both orders implement European Regulation 2024/1.143, the act of April 2024 that brought together in a single text the rules on geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products and repealed the old Regulation 1.151/2012. The Romanian institutional framework had been set out in Government Decision no. 963/2025.

The competent authority is the Ministry of Agriculture, which works through the county agriculture directorates. Applications are lodged with the county directorate, which checks the documents, and the recognition approval is issued by the specialist department within the ministry.

Recognition is not a formality. It gives the group the rights provided by law as from the date the approval is issued, and the ministry can withdraw it by decision if the group no longer meets the criteria.

What it changes in practice

The entry threshold is three members. The list of recognition criteria requires the group to be made up of at least 3 members and to be set up on their own free initiative, not because an authority told them to.

Representativeness has three alternative routes, not just one. A group is representative if it brings together at least 50% of the number of producers of the product, if it brings together a minimum share of the producers and accounts for at least 50% of the volume or value of marketable production, or if it can show that a minimum percentage of its members’ own output is marketed through the group.

Anyone who chooses the route based on the value of marketed production is tied to a fixed timetable. The minimum percentage marketed through the group is 55% in the second year after recognition and 60% from the third year on. The first year, defined as the period from the issuing of the approval to 31 December of the same year, carries no threshold.

The volume or value test does not force sales to go through the group. The regulation says explicitly that, for this route, verification is carried out on the basis of official data on the members’ marketable production, with no obligation to market the products through the group.

The group’s statutes have to contain a fixed set of internal rules. The articles of association or the statutes must lay down the procedures for adopting and amending decisions, the members’ right to scrutinise the group and its decisions, the rules on admitting new members and the minimum duration of membership, the rules on exclusion and withdrawal, the penalties for failing to meet obligations, and rules on democratic participation in decision-making.

No single member can control the group. The criterion is explicit: no member may hold more than 49% of the voting rights. This is the barrier that stops a large producer from turning the group into an extension of its own business.

Every member declares on their own responsibility whether they belong to another group. The declaration concerns membership of another producer group for the same product or for the same category of products, and false statements fall under Article 326 of the Criminal Code.

The second order creates the route to international protection. The holder of a product recognised as a geographical indication can ask the ministry to notify the European Commission with a view to international registration with the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization. The ministry can also start the process on its own initiative.

An international application is judged on economic interest, not just on paperwork. The applicant has to demonstrate commercial interest: export volumes, current or potential markets, contracts abroad, expressions of interest from importers. It can also point to documented cases of counterfeiting or misuse of the name, plus strategic indicators such as expansion plans or attendance at international trade fairs.

The cost of international protection stays with the producer. The applicant has to submit a declaration on their own responsibility that they will meet the financial obligations arising from the process. Once the European Commission notifies its agreement to protection, the ministry informs the applicant of the sums needed to complete the registration.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

European Regulation 2024/1.143 changed the underlying framework back in April 2024, but until now Romania had no national procedure for recognising a producer group under Article 33 of that regulation. Order no. 212/2026 fills precisely that gap, with criteria, standard forms and a register.

The substantive novelty is the option of recognising a group not only for a single product, but for a whole category of products designated by geographical indications. A group that has already been recognised can later apply for fresh recognition for other products or product groups, provided it files the same set of documents.

The way producer status is proved also changes. Individual members present the producer’s certificate endorsed and up to date, issued under Law no. 145/2014; authorised natural persons, individual enterprises and family enterprises present the documents issued under Emergency Ordinance no. 44/2008; legal persons present the trade register registration certificate or the tax registration certificate.

On the international side, the change is that a European legal basis already existed, in Article 86 of Regulation 2024/1.143 and in Regulation 2019/1.753 on the Union’s accession to the Geneva Act, but there was no domestic route. Order no. 214/2026 sets one out: an application to the ministry’s registry, a compliance check, an assessment of economic interest, an assessment report approved by senior management and only then the notification of the European Commission.

The procedure also sets deadlines. If the documents do not meet the conditions, the applicant is informed in writing within 30 days so that the file can be completed, and if the reply is incomplete or fails to arrive, the application is rejected. Once international registration is obtained, the holder must notify the ministry within 30 days of any change to the elements on which the registration was based.

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