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A famous Russian retailer imported confectionaries «Nelly Kids Chocolate» in packaging similar to products «Kinder Chocolate», manufactured by «Ferrero» Group. The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in Mary-El initiated administrative proceedings against the importer under part 1 of Article 14.6 of the Federal Law «On competition protection» (trademark infringement) and engaged «Ferrero Russia» CJSC to the case as a third party. Specialists of «A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent & Law Firm prepared legal submissions on behalf of «Ferrero Russia» CJSC, and claimed, that the case should be qualified not only as trademark infringement, but also as a parasitic attitude, since the packagings of the infringing products on the whole were confusingly similar to the «Kinder Chocolate» packagings and trade dress. In other words, the specialists of «A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent & Law Firm stated, that actions of the importer should be classified as unfair competition both under part 1 and part 2 of Article 14.6 of the Federal Law «On competition protection». On February 11, 2019 the commission of Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in Mary-El rendered the decision. In particular, the commission agreed with the arguments stated in legal submissions of «Ferrero Russia» CJSC. In particular, the commission classified actions of the importer of «Nelly Kids Chocolate» as unfair competition, both for the trademark infringement and for imitation of Ferrero's packagings and trade dress on the whole. The commission ordered the importer to cease the infringements and to transfer all income unlawfully earned by the importer to the federal budget. This case serves as an example of the practical implementation of the Fourth Antimonopoly Law Package introducing amendments to Russian competition law allowing to protect market players from parasitic attitude of competitors. «Ferrero Russia» CJSC was represented by Partners Irina Ozolina, Zalesov Aleksey and Senior Associate Vladislav Ryabov from «A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent & Law Firm.

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