Court judges: Lidl illegally imitated high-quality sparkling wine
Created: 05/09/2022, 14:42
By: Stella Henrich
Fake, plagiarized or just badly copied.
(Iconic image) © K. Steinkamp/imago
The Munich Higher Regional Court makes it clear that the discounter Lidl must make it clearly recognizable if it imitates a product from another brand manufacturer.
Munich – Lidl has unfairly imitated the design of the branded product “Chandon Garden Spritz” with its own-brand drink “Premium Spritz” and thus, in a broader sense, deceived about the origin of the product, according to the judgment of the Munich Higher Regional Court (OLG) in a decision (Az. 29 W 739/22).
Based on the presentation, consumers could assume that the Lidl product is a cheaper and simpler variant of the original product for discounters that comes from the same retailer and may also have inferior content.
There is therefore a lack of a clearly different indication of origin.
According to the court, this deception could have been avoided.
In any case, the term “Spritz” is not enough.
The Munich Higher Regional Court at Nymphenburger Straße 16. (Iconic image) © Frank Hoermann / SVEN SIMON/imago
Lidl sparkling wine for 4.99 euros - the original is four times more expensive
According to Lebensmittel Zeitung
(LZ)
, Lidl last sold the product in April for 4.99 euros.
The Chandon costs about four times the price and is sold through fine box bidders such as Käfer or KaDeWe and Edeka, the LZ continues.
A
copycat product or plagiarism
is understood to be a product that is similar to a mostly innovative original product in many properties and capabilities and, if the first supplier is successful, comes onto the market as soon as possible.
Lidl sparkling wine: trading in counterfeit branded goods is lucrative
Incidentally, more than one in three consumers in Germany has bought counterfeit jewellery, clothing or technology - and most of the time, the buyers said they knew or suspected what they were buying.
A good two-thirds of purchases are made abroad.
instead of.
The trade in counterfeit branded goods is a lucrative billion dollar business.
Retailers also like to fool their customers with deceptive packaging.
Consumer advocates have been warning of retailers' hidden tricks for years.
The temptation for manufacturers and retailers to hide the price increase is obviously very large.
If the pack shrinks a bit, it's often less noticeable than if the price goes up.
The experts therefore advise customers to defend themselves against such cheating.