Aldi vs M&S round two! Supermarket giant takes German rival to court over claims it has copied its Light-Up Gin
- Glitter-flecked gin is the cause of a legal row between Marks & Spencer and Aldi
- M&S is taking its German rival to court over claims Aldi copied its Light-Up Gin
- Aldi’s ‘The Infusionist’ gin liqueur is £6 cheaper than Marks & Spencer’s version
First it was Colin the Caterpillar. Now glitter-flecked gin liqueur has become the latest cause of a legal row between Marks & Spencer and discount supermarket Aldi.
M&S is taking its German rival to court over claims Aldi has copied its Light-Up Gin, three varieties of which were registered as designs earlier this year.
Aldi’s ‘The Infusionist’, which comes in clementine and blackberry flavours, is £6 cheaper than the M&S version.
But both come in a bell-shaped bottle with a light in the base, which illuminates edible gold sparkles suspended in the liqueur.
M&S is taking its German rival to court over claims Aldi has copied its Light-Up Gin (pictured), three varieties of which were registered as designs earlier this year
Legal documents filed by M&S at the High Court earlier this month state that Aldi’s products ‘constitute designs which do not produce on the informed user a different overall impression to the [M&S] designs’.
M&S claimed that an average member of the public ‘who is interested in purchasing liqueur during the Christmas period’ might not notice the difference between the two products.
Stobbs, an intellectual property law firm which is representing M&S, pointed to press coverage which compared the two products and their prices, and similar tweets from shoppers.
The supermarket chain claims that the shape of the bottle, the light-up feature, the gold-leaf flakes and a winter forest graphic are all protected features.
It wants Aldi to stop ‘infringing’ its designs, destroy all items involved in the spat, and hand over damages.
An M&S spokesman said the supermarket had ‘introduced many firsts to the UK’, including glitter gin globes and chicken kievs, and knew ‘the true value and cost of innovation’.
The gin debacle is the second time M&S has gone head-to-head with Aldi this year, following ‘Caterpillargate’
The spokesman added: ‘Our customers have confidence in our products because they trust our quality and sourcing standards, so we will always seek to protect our reputation for freshness, quality, innovation and value – and protect our customers from obvious copies.’
The gin debacle is the second time M&S has gone head-to-head with Aldi this year, following ‘Caterpillargate’.
M&S sued the discounter in the spring, claiming that its ‘Cuthbert the Caterpillar’ cake was a direct copy of M&S’s Colin the Caterpillar which has been in production since the 1990s.
The cake case is still ongoing, but Aldi made the best of the publicity and a ‘Free Cuthbert’ hashtag began trending on Twitter in April.
In a series of tweets, Aldi poked fun at its 136-year-old rival, dubbing the chain ‘Marks & Snitches’.
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