Dunnes Stores cleared of trademark breach

Dunnes Stores has won an appeal over a ruling that it infringed Aldi’s trademark by the use of in-store labelling to claim its products were cheaper than those of the rival supermarket chain.

The Court of Appeal set aside a 2015 finding of trademark infringement through the use of shelf-edge labelling because it failed to objectively compare one or more of the relevant and verifiable features of the Dunnes products with those of Aldi. Aldi said this breached the Consumer Protection Act 2007 and the European Communities (Misleading and Comparative Advertising) Regulations 2007.

At the heart of the appeal was whether the summer 2013 campaign by Dunnes, which employed Aldi’s trademarks for identification and comparison purposes, complied with conditions imposed by the regulations when such advertising is carried out, the president of the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Sean Ryan, said.

The judge disagreed with the High Court in relation to its finding that the shelf-edge labelling part of the campaign breached regulations. He will hear the parties next month on whether there should be a retrial in relation to that matter.

In the circumstances of the success by Dunnes in its appeal, the injunctions obtained by Aldi in 2015 should be set aside, notwithstanding the unlawfulness of the shop floor banners, he said.