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Do wine merchants need organic certification?
Every wine merchant in Germany who sells organic wines over the Internet requires organic certification.
According to Art. 28 Para. 1 of the EU Organic Regulation (officially: EC Organic Regulation No. 834/2007), any operator who produces , prepares, stores, imports from a non-EU country or places on the market products from organic production is "obliged, before placing on the market [...] to notify his activity to the competent authorities of the Member State in which that activity is carried out" and to participate in an organic control system, i.e. to have his company certified as organic. This therefore also applies to organic wine.
Retailers can only be exempted from the inspection obligation in accordance with Art. 28 Para. 2 if they "sell products directly to final consumers or users" and "do not themselves produce, prepare or store the products in a place other than in connection with the point of sale or import such products from a third country or have such activities carried out by third parties". This means that wine merchants are only exempt from organic certification if they sell their wines to end consumers exclusively through direct customer contact, i.e. exclusively in a real point of sale, i.e. a shop.
When selling via the internet, there is no direct customer contact within the meaning of the regulation - an online shop is not a real point of sale, but a virtual one. The exemption therefore does not apply here, meaning that wine merchants in Germany who sell online and by mail order and have organic wines in their range must have organic certification in any case; otherwise there is a risk of costly penalties warning letters. Further information can be found in the following magazine article: warning letters - Lack of organic certification for online wine merchants
Business Premium members of wein.plus have the opportunity to obtain organic certification unbureaucratically and inexpensively through our co-operation partner GfRS. Details can be found in the wein.plus world of benefits for members: Making organic certification easier