Brussels: The EU’s highest court has clarified the rules on naming drinks, declaring that alcohol-free products cannot use the word gin under any circumstances.
In a decision issued on Thursday, the EU court said that only spirit drinks made from ethyl alcohol, flavoured with juniper berries, and containing at least 37.5 percent alcohol by volume can legally be called gin. Anything without alcohol, the judges said, cannot use the name- even if clearly labelled as alcohol-free.
The case was triggered by Germany’s Verband Sozialer Wettbewerb, an association that campaigns against unfair competition. It challenged PB Vi Goods, the company behind a product marketed as Virgin Gin Alkoholfrei.
PB Vi Goods argued that consumers would easily understand the ‘virgin’ label to mean non-alcoholic, and a German court agreed that the name was unlikely to mislead shoppers. That court also questioned whether EU rules might conflict with the right to conduct business under the bloc’s charter.
#ECJ: A non-alcoholic beverage cannot be sold as #gin 👉 https://t.co/ATb3CgbPxg
— EU Court of Justice (@EUCourtPress) November 13, 2025
But the judges in Luxembourg disagreed, saying EU law leaves no room for flexibility. They ruled that pairing the term non-alcoholic with gin does not make it acceptable, and that the restriction exists to protect consumers, prevent deceptive marketing, maintain fair competition, and safeguard the reputation of EU spirit makers. The decision is a blow to Europe’s fast-expanding zero-alcohol drinks sector, which has built a market around sober-friendly alternatives that resemble classic spirits.
The ruling joins a long line of quirky food and drink cases in the EU courts. In 2018, judges blocked attempts to trademark the famous four-finger KitKat shape. A year earlier, they ruled that terms like milk, butter, and yogurt could only be used for animal-derived products, excluding plant-based alternatives.
The European Parliament is now pushing for tighter labelling rules for meat substitutes, having already voted to ban names like burger and sausage for plant-based items. For now, though, drinkers in the EU may need to rethink their menus. An alcohol-free gin and tonic, at least in name, is officially off the table.
