The ‘Which?‘ Consumer Misdirection and Mistaken Purchases report found that a significant portion of consumers felt misled or annoyed by copycat branded products and that a fifth of consumers surveyed had bought an imitation branded product by mistake.
This 2022 study on packaging similarity found that 43% of participants cited buying a copycat product when under the impression they were buying the familiar branded product and 39% were likely to make a mistaken purchase based on the similar design.
Interestingly, the Competition and Markets Authority has published guidance on the unfair trading provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
In relation to misleadingly similar ‘parasitic’ packaging, the guidance addresses this in relation to Banned Practice 15 (see pages 26-27) where it gives the following example:
- A trader designs the packaging of shampoo A so that it very closely resembles that of shampoo B, an established brand of a competitior. The similarity was introduced deliberately to mislead consumers into believing that shampoo A is made by the manufacturer of shampoo B.
It is also addressed under Misleading action type 3: Creating confusion with competitors’ products (see page 48) which, to be an offence, requires the consumer to make a different purchasing decision than would otherwise be likely. It gives the following example:
- A major sunglasses retailer is selling ‘Sunspex’, a highly successful brand with a signature pink colour. A competing trader launches ‘Sunspeks’ in a slightly different shade of pink. This will be illegal if the average consumer is likely to be confused and more likely to take a different decision, such as to buy Sunspeks, than they otherwise would be.
This is helpful for those suppliers that have seen ‘close copies’ of their products hit the shelves as retailers’ private label products. If found to likely mislead shoppers, producers of the offending packaging designs now risk fines of up to 10% of their global turnover.
Would you like to discover other ways that regulation can support your business? The British Brands Group provides a range of functional training with courses covering GSCOP, Competition law and compliance and Trading with Amazon. These will enable you to offer cost effective development opportunities that will directly impact your business results. All feature a strong commercial bias, being about both understanding and application in the trading world. This training is available as face-to-face or onlline offerings. The Group is also open to exploring your specific needs if you want to run an in-house course exclusively for your team. View our training offer, enrol or contact us. The next training dates are:
- Thursday 1 May, GSCOP full course, face-to-face (Uxbridge)
- Fridays 13 & 20 June, GSCOP modular course, online (2 afternoon sessions lasting 2.5 hours each [13:30 – 16:00])
- Monday 16 June, Competition Law and Compliance, in person, Blackfriars