A three-day hearing is underway of Tesco’s appeal against a High Court ruling that its Clubcard Prices logo infringed Lidl’s trademark rights.
The hearing began on Monday (19 February) in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, and is being livestreamed on the court’s Youtube channel.
It follows a High Court ruling last April that Tesco was taking unfair advantage of Lidl’s discounter reputation with its design, which, like Lidl’s logo, uses a yellow circle and blue background.
In written arguments in the Court of Appeal, Tesco has claimed there is no evidence of a change in the economic behaviour of consumers, a requirement for a finding of unfair advantage.
A Lidl spokeswoman said: “We firmly believe that over the last four years Tesco has taken unfair advantage of Lidl’s longstanding reputation for great value, misleading shoppers at a time when they should be supporting them. We will continue to strongly defend our brand and our customers’ right not to be misled on prices.”
If unsuccessful in its appeal, Tesco faces being given nine weeks to remove all infringing Clubcard Prices logos from stores under the terms of an injunction. Tesco head of legal Ryan Hetherington last year told court it would cost the supermarket over £7m to do so, thanks to the “extremely widespread use” of the logo, with over eight million signs in stores.
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