Thatchers loses legal battle over Aldi cider after judge does blind taste test
Thatchers has lost a legal battle against Aldi over its own version of lemon cider after a judge took a blind taste test.
The Somerset brewery became embroiled in a high court battle with the budget supermarket chain over its 'Taurus' brand of 'cloudy lemon cider' launched in 2022, which lawyers claimed infringed on their trademark. But a judge threw out Thatchers' claim after tasting the two to compare, saying the two drinks did not taste similar enough to create confusion.
The German retailers were taken to court last year with a trial hearing Thatchers' case that Aldi creating a cheaper version of their rink to gain an "unfair advantage" and "riding on the coattails" of their reputation. While the supermarket accepted it had used the family-run cider brand's drink as a "benchmark" for its own, it denied infringement or that it was "passing off" the drink as a copycat.
Judge Melissa Clarke was invited to take a "taste test" of the rival drinks, saying in her judgement she was "no expert and have never tasted cloudy lemon cider before", but that the drinks tasted "very similar" but discernibly different. She said she was "satisfied on the balance of probabilities" that seeing the Aldi product "would call to mind" the Thatchers trademark, causing "a link in the mind of the average consumer".
But she concluded that Aldi had not infringed and was not liable for "passing off", adding that the German supermarket's product did not take unfair advantage of nor was "detrimental" to the reputation of the Thatchers trademark. Judge Clarke found that Aldi did not develop its product "with an intention to take advantage of the goodwill and reputation" of the Thatchers trademark, adding that she was satisfied "there is no misrepresentation".
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An Aldi spokesperson said: "There's nothing cloudy about this judgment. It's clear-cut. Aldi exclusive brands are just that: exclusive to Aldi while leading the market on quality and price."
Martin Thatcher, a fourth-generation cider maker at the firm, said they had been "compelled" to bring the case "as we were concerned" that Aldi's packaging was "misleading" shoppers due to its similarity. Despite saying he was disappointed with the ruling, he added that the action was "the right thing to do".
Thatchers' barrister, Martin Howe KC, said the company spent nearly £3 million on marketing between 2020 and 2022 and had sold £20.7 million worth of the cloudy lemon cider drink as of September 2022. Mr Howe said Aldi had achieved "extraordinarily high" sales of its Taurus product - more than £1.4 million - after a "lack both of development investment, or marketing spend", adding that this "can only have been achieved by reason of Thatchers' investment in the Thatchers product".
The dispute came in the wake of Aldi losing a separate court battle with Marks and Spencer after being accused of copying its light-up Christmas gin bottles. Aldi has since appealed a High Court ruling that it infringed the design of the British retailer's product, with a judgment expected at a later date.
The supermarket was most notably involved in a legal battle with M&S over its Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake, reaching a settlement back in 2022 over the children's party cake.
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