Wheat Thins or Thin Wheat? Nutter Butters or Peanut Butter Crème Filled Cookies? Nilla Wafers or Vanilla Wafers?
They may sound the same, look similar and, to some, even taste the same.
And that’s exactly the issue for Mondelez International, a corporate giant behind the name-brand versions of many snacks.
Mondelez, which is based in Chicago, filed a lawsuit last month in a federal court in Illinois against the U.S. branch of the German supermarket chain Aldi, which has its U.S. headquarters in Batavia, Ill., over what it says is Aldi’s look-alike product packaging.
The suit says that Aldi “blatantly copies” Mondelez signature snacks in a way that is “likely to deceive and confuse customers.”
The lawsuit also claims that some of Aldi’s packaging threatens to “dilute the distinctive quality of Mondelez’s unique product packaging” and “irreparably harm Mondelez and its valuable brands.”
Mondelez is seeking monetary damages and a court order preventing Aldi from selling products that Mondelez claims infringe on its trademarks.
Mondelez and Aldi did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
The lawsuit singles out a number of products, including Chips Ahoy and Oreo cookies, Wheat Thins and Premium Saltine Crackers.
Mondelez claims that the Aldi versions of these products have design elements — colors, graphics and names — that are deceptively similar to the originals. Mondelez included side-by-side images of various brands in the lawsuit to highlight what it said were the similarities.
It’s not an entirely surprising turn for Aldi, a supermarket chain that once operated under the slogan “Like Brands. Only Cheaper.”
And so-called dupe products are nothing new.
Many generic products, from off-brand Tylenol to off-brand Kleenex, resemble brand-name products but cost less. That’s the case for many Aldi-branded snacks, which can generally be less expensive than the original brand.
The issue of look-alike packaging is not limited to Mondelez. Walk through the aisles of an Aldi store and you may see what look like brand-name snacks from other companies.
There are Clubhouse crackers that come in a green box resembling that of the Club crackers brand; Baked Cheese Crackers that come in a red box resembling that of the brand name cracker Cheez-It; and Honey Buns pastries that come in a golden package that resembles that of Little Debbie Honey Buns.
For some customers, the difference is negligible.
There are social media accounts dedicated to taste-testing generic versions of big-name brands, and Reddit threads ranking customer’s favorite dupes. (“I gasped out loud when I saw them,” someone posted on Reddit in response to a dupe of Spindrift, a seltzer with fruit juice.)
Aldi has faced lawsuits over its generic products before.
In December 2024, the supermarket chain was found liable in an Australian court for copyright infringement over children’s snack packaging that resembled a rival’s.
That case dated to August 2021, when Aldi grocery stores began selling children’s snacks under the Mamia brand. The suit said some of the Mamia packaging, including the fonts, colors and cartoon characters, resembled that of Baby Bellies, a product of an Australian-based company called Every Bite Counts.
In January, a cider company in the United Kingdom won an appeal after suing Aldi in 2022 over trademark infringement.
Aldi, which was founded in Germany and has more than 2,400 stores in the United States, gained widespread popularity in part because of its lower prices. The stores have a smaller inventory than many major supermarkets, and 90 percent of their inventory are Aldi-exclusive brands.
Talya Minsberg is a Times reporter covering breaking and developing news.
The post Snack Maker Sues Aldi Grocery Chain Over Look-Alike Product Packaging appeared first on New York Times.
