Aldi sues Tesco in price war campaign

Aldi says Tesco is infringing its trademarks in a Tesco in-store campaign involving alleged inaccurate, misleading and unfair comparison of the prices of products sold by the two supermarket giants.

The use of the Aldi marks in banners displayed in Tesco stores was "the final straw" in circumstances where Aldi had been complaining to Tesco of infringement of Aldi marks since 2009, Aldi director Niall O'Connor said in a sworn statement to court.

Such banners were displayed in recent months at Tesco stores at Rathmines Road, Jervis Street and Parnell Street in Dublin and at Monastervin Road, Kildare, he said.

The banners featured the Aldi trademarks related to various products "without any attempt to use those marks for comparative advertising", he said.

Aldi has alleged Tesco, in its pricing campaign, has failed to compare like with like, mistated the sale price of the relevant Aldi product or the Tesco product and failed to compare the relevant quantity of the Tesco product with an equivalent quantity of Aldi product.

Paul Coughlan, for Tesco, said his client did not accept there was a recent escalation of the dispute. The case continues.

hnews@herald.ie