Lindt wins ‘chocolate ball’ legal case against Aldi
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Lindt wins ‘chocolate ball’ legal case against Aldi
Chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli has won a legal case against the retailer Aldi Suisse for infringing the trademark rights of its Lindor chocolate balls. Aldi must stop selling its own chocolate balls for now.
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The Commercial Court of canton Aargau agreed with Lindt & Sprüngli’s argument that the “Moser Roth” chocolate balls sold by Aldi Suisse, the Swiss branch of the German discounter, were “unnecessarily similar” to its Lindor balls. This was detailed in a court ruling issued on December 14.
The verdict was first reported by the Aargauer Zeitung newspaper.
Lindt & Sprüngli has annual sales of CHF44.8 million ($49.6 million) in Switzerland from its Lindor balls, according to the ruling.
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Aldi Suisse had been selling chocolate balls under the “Moser Roth” brand. Like Lindor balls, the Aldi version has a red-and-blue wrapper and had been sold as a “Christmas edition” since October 2024.
In the ruling, Lindt & Sprüngli now has a deadline of March 13, 2025 to file a lawsuit against Aldi Suisse in the main proceedings.
At the same time, however, the Aargau court also acknowledges that its sales ban has a direct impact on Aldi’s Christmas sales and profits. The Kilchberg chocolate manufacturer must therefore also provide a security deposit of CHF200,000.
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This was not Lindt & Sprüngli’s first court appearance to defend violations of its trademark. A Munich court recently banned a manufacturer from selling chocolate bunnies in gold-colored foil because they looked too similar to Lindt’s “Gold Bunny”.
Adapted from German by DeepL/sb
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