Day: 9 January 2019

Monaco-based Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s easyGroup, owner of the easy family of brands, has today claimed a historic victory in its long-running legal battle with the French supermarket giant, Carrefour.

Between 2014-6, the supermarket giant opened a number of “metro” format stores in Belgium using the orange colour in a font that resembles the easyGroup house style.

Following legal action and representations from easyGroup’s lawyers, Carrefour has now rebranded these stores into their own house style – “Carrefour Express”. (Before and after photos of the store signs are below.)

The Belgian retail trade magazine has also reported on the French giant’s change of strategy: https://www.retaildetail.be

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, owner of the easy family of brands, which include easyJet, easyHotel and easyCar, among many others said, “I am delighted that another brand thief has been ‘reformed’. Companies the size of Carrefour should not be using a brand that confuses the consumer. I am sure it was a naïve mistake of some middle manager in the (Carrefour) empire to use the easy brand without our permission. It also seems to me that a more recent change of guard at the top caused them to realise their mistake and change back to using their own name, not mine. No self-respecting business wants to confuse the customer.

“We have a long-standing and well-publicised policy of pursuing brand thieves in courts in the UK, the EU and beyond. Some are small companies that simply fold instead of fighting it out in court. However, it is reassuring to see a company the size of Carrefour that could easily afford the legal fees to make the change away from the easy brand rather than see us in court. So Carrefour: thanks for the ‘backhanded compliment’.”

The lawyers for the Russian businessman and owner of the Monaco football club, Dmitry Rybolovlev, promised to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights over the decision of the High Courts of Cassation on January 8.

Lawyers Herve Temime and Thomas Giaccardi issued this statement: “The decision of the Monaco court does not comply with the fundamental principles governing any criminal procedure. The study of maitre Bersheda’s mobile phone and the use of confidential information contained during a trial constitutes a gross violation of professional secrecy and the right to privacy.

“In this regard, we plan to transfer the case to the European Court of Human Rights for consideration, to ascertain the violation of the basic rights of the accused by the authorities of the municipality.”

The dispute relates to the use of SMS evidence on the phone of attorney Tatiana Bersheda, which was seized by police in one case, causing data to be subsequently deleted, allegedly jeopardising Rybolovlev’s case.

You can read the full report on the Crime Russia website.

The watch auction taking place at Monaco Legends Auctions on 14 January could set records, according to GQ Magazine.

In its first big auction of 2019, the auction house offers many unique timepieces. The style magazine says “January has traditionally been a fallow month in the world of high-end auctions, not least because many of the world’s super-rich are busy in their favourite alpine playgrounds or soaking-up some winter sun.

“But now that the internet has made it easy to view lots online and bid ‘any time, any place, anywhere’ the importance of when a sale is held and its ‘live’ location is becoming increasingly irrelevant.”

A total of 141 lots are up for auction on 14 January and lots are on display both at the auction house and online from 9 January.