Lidl may seek a share of profits made by Tesco from its Clubcard scheme after the discounter won a trademark battle over the use of a circular yellow logo on a blue background.
Lidl asked for a financial disclosure from Tesco in the High Court on Monday to determine what profits the grocery giant may have made from infringing its trademark and benefiting from its reputation as a discount supermarket, Reuters reported.
Though Tesco argued it would be impossible to attribute profits to the use of Lidl’s logo, the discounter said the share may be significant given Tesco’s market dominance.
Lidl lawyer Benet Brandreth said in court filings: “Tesco is responsible for around a quarter of the UK’s entire supermarket share and Lidl for approximately 7%.
“Over three years that amounts to many millions of customers and billions of pounds of turnover and profit. If even a fractional percentage of that trade is attributable to the infringement, the resulting sums are huge.”
Both parties agreed to decide whether Lidl would seek damages or an account of profits made by Tesco pending the issue of financial disclosure.
Lidl first sued Tesco in 2020 after the launch of Tesco’s logo for its Clubcard Prices initiative.
Lidl won the trademark battle last month after the High Court ruled that Tesco had “taken unfair advantage of the distinctive reputation” for low prices that Lidl held.
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