UK – Lidl, a German international discount retail chain that operates over 12,000 stores across Europe and the United States, has been granted an injunction to stop Tesco from copying its logo, London’s High Court has ruled.
Lidl sought an injunction preventing Tesco from infringing its trademark, arguing last month that it was needed to stop Tesco from deceiving consumers.
The war over logos was brought to the court by Lidl after Britain’s biggest retailer, Tesco, adopted a yellow circle against a blue background to promote its “Clubcard Prices” discount scheme.
Lidl’s logo is also a yellow circle set against a blue background but with a red outer rim of the circle and blue writing on all but the ‘i’, which is red. Tesco lost the trademark lawsuit brought by Lidl back in April.
Tesco’s lawyers argued it was unnecessary to impose an injunction and that its infringement of Lidl’s trademark could be resolved by paying a small amount of damages.
Judge Joanna Smith said: “The only certain way to put an end to the loss that Lidl is incurring because of the continuing use of the (Clubcard Price) signs is to grant a final injunction.”
However, the injunction won’t come into force until both supermarkets have made appeals if they choose to – and both have said they will challenge the original ruling.
The judge said Tesco will have nine weeks to remove all Clubcard Prices’ logos once the proceedings are over and, in the event, Tesco is unsuccessful on appeal.
Ryan Hetherington, head of legal at Tesco, described how difficult it’s going to be for Tesco to make this change, as it uses more than eight million Clubcard Prices logos across its stores, and there are more online, in print advertising, and on TV.
Meanwhile, Tesco boss Ken Murphy claims he is “optimistic” that food prices could soon start to fall as Britons continue to struggle against spiraling costs.
However, Mr. Murphy said that although customers “continue to face significant cost-of-living pressures”, food inflation will continue to fall.
“We are very conscious that many of our customers continue to face significant cost-of-living pressures and we have led the way in cutting prices on everyday essential items,” he pointed out.
“There are encouraging early signs that inflation is starting to ease across the market, and we will keep working tirelessly to ensure customers receive the best possible value at Tesco.”
According to Swati Dhingra, who works on the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, retailers are not passing falls in prices onto customers even as some analysts argue the retailers are profiteering from what is happening to the current supply chain.
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