The British Brands Group (BBG) has listed a selection of supermarket own-label products which use packaging designs that mimic familiar brands and potentially result in consumers paying higher prices.
In its Parasitic packaging report, the BBG notes that similar pack designs prey on shoppers’ subconscious, making products look familiar and therefore more appealing than they really are. The similar look is also said to prompt mistaken purchases and boost the belief that the copy is made by the same manufacturer as the original. This drives sales of the copy and allows higher prices to be charged to the consumer.
“It is a cynical manipulation of shoppers, while the branded company loses sales, loses its distinctiveness and shelf stand-out, weakens its ability to compete and diverts resources,” said John Noble, Director of the BBG.
Brand owners try to protect themselves as best they can against such attacks but the BBG notes that there are limited tools available. The evidence required to demonstrate confused consumers to a Court’s satisfaction is said to be extremely high, rendering passing off and trade mark law ineffective.
Meanwhile, Trading Standards and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have taken no enforcement action for 14 years. “This lack of enforcement allows the practice to flourish as demonstrated in the Group’s selection. For some, such copying has become something of a business model,” added Noble.
The BBG is continuing to call on the government to ensure consumer protection rules are effectively enforced, something promised that would happen as long ago as 2008 in a consultation response (See page 16 of the BBG report).
Recognising enforcers’ taxpayer funding and ever-tightening budgets, the BBG is suggesting that brand owners be able to invoke consumer protection rules in their civil actions against “misleadingly” similar packaging, an approach adopted in many other countries. However, the group notes that both the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) and the CMA have resisted this.
