Tesco faces an expensive rebranding after losing its closely watched Court of Appeal challenge against a High Court ruling that its Clubcard Prices logo infringed budget rival Lidl’s trademark logo.
The legal tussle – characterised by legal commentators as both unusual and finely balanced – was decided in favour of Lidl by the Court of Appeal in a judgment handed down by Lord Justice Richard Arnold (along with Lord Justice Lewison and Lord Justice Birss) today (19 March).
The court upheld the earlier High Court judgment of trademark infringement and passing off but did allow Tesco’s appeal against the finding of copyright infringement.
The dispute related to Tesco’s adoption in 2020 and subsequent use of its Clubcard Prices logo (the CCP signs) for its discount price scheme. Lidl claimed the logo infringed a number of its IP rights in its Lidl logo which is protected as a trademark in two different forms: a logo which includes the word Lidl and a logo without the word.
Tesco’s main ground of appeal against trademark infringement and passing off was to challenge Mrs Justice Joanna Smith’s finding that the average consumer seeing the CCP signs would believe the prices being advertised had been “price-matched” by Tesco with the equivalent Lidl price.
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