Mondelez International, the company behind Oreo, Wheat Thins and other name-brand products, says Aldi is copying its packaging in an effort to dupe customers into buying the supermarket chain’s products.
In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Illinois, the snack company alleges that Aldi “blatantly copies” the distinctive packaging of its brands in order to mislead customers into thinking they are buying a Mondelez product when they are actually purchasing a store-brand version. The company is seeking monetary damages and a court order that would prevent Aldi from selling products Mondelez says infringe on its trademarks.
Neither Aldi nor Mondelez immediately responded to CBS News’ requests for comment.
Mondelez names a number of Aldi products in its lawsuit that it alleges are look-alikes of its own popular snacks such as Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins, Nilla Wafers cookies and Nabisco Premium Saltine Crackers. The company claims the Aldi store-brand items have different names but bear similar packaging design elements — including font, colors, image placement and product names — to Mondelez products.
Aldi’s Peanut Butter Creme Filled Cookies, for example, come in a red box, similar to that of Mondelez’s Nutter Butter cookies. The white script font and cookie image on the packaging also mimic the Nutter Butter packaging, the snack company claims.
Aldi also sells a product called Thin Wheat, which in addition to the nearly synonymous name to Nabisco’s Wheat Thins, has a similar design to the Mondelez product, including a yellow background, the word “original” and crackers pictured on the bottom half of the box, the lawsuit says.
The trademark lawsuit is not the first for Aldi, which been called out numerous times over its products’ packaging. Earlier this year, a U.K. appeals court ruled in favor of Thatchers, a cider company, which sued Aldi over design similarities in the packaging of its lemon cider.
Mondelez is one of the worlds largest multinational food companies, with a footprint in over 150 countries. Aldi, a U.S.-based company, has over 2,500 locations.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. Before joining the business and finance vertical, she worked at “60 Minutes,” CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program.
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