A Stitch in Haste

A while back I lambasted the European Union for passing an obnoxious protectionist regulation that required any winery wishing to use the word "château" to actually be within sight of a bona fide castle.

Well, what's wine without cheese?

After a 13-year dispute, the EU gave Greece exclusive rights to the name for the salty white cheese in 2002. However, Denmark and Germany challenged the decision in court.

Now the Luxembourg European Court of Justice has decided Denmark and Germany had not provided sufficient arguments to prove the EU Commission wrong.
...
The court backed the argument that "feta" meets the requirements of a designation of origin — in that it describes a cheese originating from a substantial part of Greece.

This story may seem trivial, but there's a real cost to an arbitrary regulation like this, above and beyond the typical market disruptions that government-imposed barriers to entry bring, such as higher prices, lower output and abnormal profits to the politically favored firms.

Anyone remember "menu costs" from their Introductory Macroeconomics class? Non-Greek feta producers will now face a similar expense:

Judy Bell, who runs Shepherds Purse Cheeses near Thirsk, in North Yorkshire, said she was not surprised by the ruling.
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"We will have to go through a massive remerchandising process and reorganisation" she said.

This is essentially a tax from non-Greek feta cheese producers into the hands of their Greek counterparts.

But of course, redistributionist taxation and regulation have always been what the Eurocrats do best.

More thoughts at Conglomerate.