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European Court case sets rules for comparative advertising
Date: 18/06/2009
In a landmark ruling opposing L'Oréal with a producer marketing obvious imitations of some well-known L'Oréal fragrances, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on 18 June prohibited the use of competitors' trademarks in certain forms of comparative advertising.
Bellure, a Belgian firm, was manufacturing products that were very similar to some of L'Oréal's best-selling perfume brands, but were sold at a much lower price. Alongside using packaging and logos similar to those employed by L'Oréal, the smaller firm was also directly comparing the cost of its own goods with the French company's equivalents.
The Court ruled that Bellure was unfairly seeking to "exploit, without paying any financial compensation, the marketing efforts expended by the proprietor of the mark." It also established that "explicitly or implicitly" marketing a product as an imitation of another well-known trade mark using comparative advertising constituted a breach of the EU's 1984 Comparative Advertising Directive.
Next steps: The ECJ ruling sets a precedent for the interpretation of European law on comparative advertising in cases of unfair ‘copy-cat' advertising, and is expected to help prevent this type of unfair comparative advertising in the future.
Read further press coverage of this here: Wall Street Journal
For more information please contact Malte Lohan: [email protected]
