**4. Results**

This collected data resulted from the scraping of 2184 products from 44 online supermarkets from 11 countries. This search presented the selling of 314 different GI registered products. GI products' search was conducted on four of the most popular grocery retail supermarkets in each country. Although some other relevant supermarkets could have been part of this research, many did not have an online shop. The results shown above are separated initially into economic blocs and posteriorly by the number of products and GI diversity.

#### *4.1. European Union*

The empirical results of the data collection contained information from 28 online supermarkets across the eight countries. The survey found 1784 products labeled as GI products. From those products, 462, or 25.90%, were found in French supermarkets, with France being the country with the most products. Spain, on the other hand, with 128, or

7.17%, meaning that it was the country with the least number of products. Besides, of the 1706 GI products from the countries surveyed, the research found 59 other products from Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, and Ireland within the economic bloc, a total of 98,93% of the GI products from the bloc. Besides, seven other GI products from the United Kingdom (UK) and 12 from Cambodia were from outside the bloc, a total of 19 or 1.07%. No products from the Mercosur were found. Nonetheless, 1005 or 56.33% of the products belonged from the 1.3 category, the most relevant one. The categories 1.9, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, 2.11, 2.12, 2.13, 2.14, 2.15, 2.16, 2.17, 2.18, 2.19 and 2.20 presented zero products.

All these 1784 products constituted 289 different GIs. Besides the GIs from the surveyed countries, there were 276 different GIs from the surveyed EU countries, ten other GIs from other EU countries and three from outside the bloc. Italian markets showed 81, or 28.03%, different GIs from the researched countries, as the one with the greatest numbers. On the other hand, Poland has six, or 2.08%, different GIs, being the country with the lowest numbers. From the 10 GIs found from other EU countries, one belonged to the 1.2 category, and the other nine were found in the 1.3 category. With regards to the products from outside the bloc, the survey found two different GIs from the UK and one from Cambodia. Additionally, category 1.3 not only had the greatest number of products but was also the most numerous relevant category in the number of different GIs. Category 1.3 had 105 different GIs, or 36.33%. Since the categories 1.9, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, 2.11, 2.12, 2.13, 2.14, 2.15, 2.16, 2.17, 2.18, 2.19 and 2.20 presented zero products, no GIs could be summed up.

As presented, the variety of GIs from inside and outside the EU is significantly alike the number of products from inside and outside as well, as presented in Figure 1.

**Figure 1.** Origin of offered products and GI registers in e-retail markets of the EU.

Figure 1 shows that almost all of the products found in the survey come from countries that belong to the EU. Only about 1% of the products are from outside the bloc. The same happens when it comes to the varieties of GIs found in the EU e-retail markets survey. The GIs from outside the bloc found on the survey are barely representative, as it is only about 1%. This survey demonstrates how protective the bloc is of its own goods and how open it is to goods from outside. It demonstrates a severe protective system and the effectiveness of the EU policy towards valorization of inner goods.

On the other hand, there is a minor difference between GI registers and the number of products in the EU's e-retail markets regarding the categories of products. Such difference is clearly demonstrated in Figure 2.

**Figure 2.** Products and GI registers in e-retail markets of the EU regarding categories.

This second graph shows a different perspective. Concerning the products found over the course of the survey, it shows similar proportions of both products and varieties of GIs in each category. However, in terms of products, category 1.3 (cheese) has an evident distinctiveness from the others, consisting of almost 60% of products found. Furthermore, in terms of GI varieties categories 1.3 (cheese), 1.6 (FVC) and 1.2 (meat products) all consist of over 10% of products. However, these data also show the system's concentration on promoting a few select categories, predominantly the cheese category.
