L'Oréal wins parallel trading case at EFTA court
L’Oréal has won an important victory at the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court regarding its ability to stop other companies selling any of its products where it chooses. The court has ruled that the 1988 EU trade mark directive prevents EU and European Economic Area (EEA) countries (the EU, plus EFTA members Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) from undermining these rights internationally.
L’Oréal has won an important victory at the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court regarding its ability to stop other companies selling any of its products where it chooses. The court has ruled that the 1988 EU trade mark directive prevents EU and European Economic Area (EEA) countries (the EU, plus EFTA members Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) from undermining these rights internationally.
The case involved L’Oréal Redken products designed for the US being sold without its permission in Norway. The importers argued that because the products had been released for sale, L’Oréal trademark rights had been waived (“exhausted” in legal terms), and the cosmetics giant could not block their parallel export to Norway. But the EFTA Court, whose rulings are a legal precedent across the EEA, has decided this is not the case. It said the directive “precludes the unilateral introduction or maintenance of international exhaustion of rights conferred by a trade mark”.