Tesco accused of ripping off Lidl logo to ‘ride on discounter’s coattails’

The UK’s largest supermarket has sued for some of Lidl’s brands to be invalidated.

The yellow-circled brand, dubbed “the wordless brand” in legal documents, is “a figment of the imagination of Lidl’s legal imagination,” Tesco said.

As part of the pre-trial dispute, the Supreme Court said Monday that Lidl could potentially use a survey of customer perceptions of the emblem as evidence. Tesco argued this would result in a further £500,000 in legal costs.

A Tesco spokesman said: “We strongly deny and defend this allegation but cannot otherwise comment on an ongoing legal matter.”

Lidl declined to comment. The German discounter opened its first store in the UK in 1994 and last month accounted for almost 7 per cent of the grocery market, a new record.