Another ALDI Copycat Case Ends Up In Court

Gone are the days when store brand products were wrapped in plain, dull packaging that screamed “cheap!” These days, store brands are bright and colorful and appealing, just like the name brands.

Sometimes a little too much like the name brands.

ALDI is well-known for stocking its stores with mostly ALDI brands. But you’d be forgiven if you can’t always tell the difference, as ALDI often skirts close to the edge when it comes to packaging its products to closely mimic their most prominent name brand counterparts.

And now one of those prominent brands has become the latest to call ALDI out on it, by taking the retailer to court.

Snack maker Mondelēz has filed a federal lawsuit against ALDI, accusing it of using “private label product packaging that blatantly copies” several of Mondelēz’s “universally recognizable and iconic brands,” including Oreo, Wheat Thins, Nutter Butter, Chips Ahoy!, Nilla Wafers, Ritz and Premium.

The lawsuit offers several photographic examples, as pictured above, showing Mondelēz and ALDI products side by side. The product packages all feature similar colors, typefaces and images. There’s Mondelēz’s Oreo cookies and ALDI’s “Original” cookies, both in the same shade of blue, with the product name in bold white letters and images of the cookies tilted at the very same angle. ALDI’s “Thin Wheat” crackers and Mondelēz’s Wheat Thins are both in yellow boxes with similar designs. And just like Mondelēz’s Ritz crackers, ALDI’s “Golden Round” crackers are in a red box with the product name prominently featured on a blue background.

The similar packaging is “likely to deceive and confuse consumers,” the lawsuit argues, and enables ALDI “to profit from Mondelēz’s investment in developing and promoting its branded products, rather than Defendant competing purely on quality and price and/or its own promotional efforts.”

And these are not one-offs, Mondelēz alleges. The company says it has previously complained to ALDI “on numerous occasions,” objecting to “copycats” of products including Teddy Grahams, Belvita biscuits, Tate’s Bake Shop cookies and Triscuit crackers. ALDI has “discontinued and/or changed certain of these infringing products in response to Mondelēz’s objections,” only to introduce new products mimicking other Mondelēz brands, the lawsuit reads, demonstrating “a pattern and practice of selling products in packaging that are unacceptable copies of Mondelēz’s.”

This isn’t the first time national brands have been less than flattered by ALDI’s alleged imitation. ALDI regularly faces challenges to its package designs, and often loses. Courts in the UK and Australia have recently ruled against ALDI in similar copycat cases. Here in the U.S., over the past decade, ALDI settled two high-profile cases brought against it by King’s Hawaiian and Angel Soft toilet paper maker Georgia-Pacific. Terms of those settlements were confidential, but it’s worth noting that ALDI’s Hawaiian roll and toilet paper packages no longer look like the brands that sued them.

It’s just more evidence that ALDI’s “business model involves an emphasis on low-priced private label products that resemble the look and feel of well-known brands,” Mondelēz argues. Its lawsuit accuses ALDI of trademark infringement, unfair competition and unjust enrichment, among other allegations. It’s demanding monetary damages and an injunction preventing ALDI from selling any of the allegedly infringing products going forward.

So the next time you’re looking to buy Original cookies, Thin Wheats, or Golden Round crackers, keep a close eye on the package designs. Imitation may be considered flattery – but it can also prove to be costly.