The maker of Oreo has filed a lawsuit against Aldi, claiming the budget supermarket chain has been copying the packaging designs of its cookies and other snacks.
Mondelez International manufactures popular snacks including Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins and Ritz crackers.
Many grocery chains sell their own versions of the snacks alongside the name-brand products, providing customers a more affordable option. Aldi, known for its low prices and no-frills stores, primarily sells products under its own brand.
But the global snack giant claims the packaging for Aldi’s store-brand cookies in the U.S. and crackers “blatantly copies” its products and was “likely to deceive and confuse customers.”
Mondelez included side-by-side photos in its lawsuit, comparing the packaging of its name-brand snacks to that of Aldi’s.
The photos show Mondelez’s Nutter Butter cookie packaging which displays a peanut-shaped cookie against a red background. Aldi’s Peanut Butter Créme Filled Cookies also have red packaging, but instead of showing a peanut-shaped cookie, it had a circular cookie with peanut images in front of it.
Aldi’s Chocolate Chip Cookies and Original Chocolate Sandwich Cookies With Vanilla Filling have blue packaging, similar to the branding of Mondelez’s Chips Ahoy and Oreo cookies. But the words and images of the cookies differ.
Mondelez also claim that Aldi infringed on its rights for the packaging of Nutter Butter cookies, Nilla Wafers cookies and its Premium crackers.
Mondelez argues the similar packaging threatens to irreparably damage the company and its brands. The company said it has reached out to Aldi multiple times about “confusingly similar packaging.”
While Aldi has discontinued some products or altered the packaging, it continued to sell others, Mondelez claims.
Mondelez hopes to get the court to order Aldi to stop selling products that it says infringe on its trademarks, as well as monetary damages.
The Independent has reached out to Mondelez and Aldi U.S. for comment.
Aldi has lost in court in two other disputes over its packaging, including in Australia for infringing on the copyright of Baby Bellies snack puffs and in the United Kingdom for packaging design similarities to Thatchers lemon cider.
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