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A federal Court ruling against the Aldi supermarket chain for copyright infringement has prompted Bunnings Warehouse to launch its own legal challenge against the German-owned discount retailer.

A Federal Court judge this week found Aldi’s packaging designs for its range of Baby Puffs fruit-flavoured children’s snack foods (top row, below) had infringed the copyright held by the owner of the rival product, Baby Belly Puffs, manufactured by Hampden Holdings. (bottom row, below)

Justice Mark Moshinsky found Aldi was liable for “flagrant” copyright infringement for the design of its puff products.

Following the ruling Bunnings Warehouse said it had briefed its lawyers who would soon launch a copyright infringement action against Aldi.

“We will argue that Aldi is engaging in a similar flagrant breach of copyright by continuing to sell a range of products in the centre aisles of its store network,” a Bunnings spokesperson said.

“Any reasonable person who enters an Aldi store cannot help but notice that its centre aisles are chock full of cheap, shoddy Chinese-made products that fall apart or fail to work as soon as you get them home. We argue that this is a blatant rip-off of the Bunnings’ business model.

“We will be seeking considerable damages and asking the court to direct Aldi to remove all of its centre-aisle products in all of its stores.

“We will also be launching a separate action specifically targeting Aldi’s practice of flagrantly stocking and selling sausages, sliced bread, fresh onions, and a range of sauces as we believe these products could easily be combined to provide a barbecue meal outside their stores.”

An Aldi spokesperson said the retailer would vigorously defend any action launched by Bunnings.

“We’ll be engaging the Aldi-owned law firm Slayter and Gordin to defend us, since they are doing a bang-up job in litigation currently on foot that was initiated by the Coca-Cola company over the marketing of our own-brand cola-flavoured soft drink,” the spokesperson said. (below)

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