Unfair deception through fruit tea without fruit?

The Regional Court (LG) Düsseldorf had to decide whether a tea bearing images of fruit may be advertised if no components of these fruits are contained in the product.

A tea manufacturer advertised one of his fruit teas on the packaging with the designation "Raspberry-Vanilla Adventure" and with images of raspberries and vanilla flowers. As ingredients of the product, the manufacturer listed hibiscus, apples, sweet blackberry leaves, orange peels, rose hips, lemon peels, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, elderberries as well as "natural aroma with vanilla flavour" and "natural aroma with raspberry flavour". A competition association considered the packaging presentation to be misleading, issued a cease-and-desist notice to the tea manufacturer and demanded cessation of the anti-competitive advertising.

Court's decision

The Regional Court (LG) Düsseldorf decided by judgment of 16.03.2012 – Az. 38 O 74/11, that the tea manufacturer must cease advertising his tea with the designation "Raspberry-Vanilla Adventure" and/or the images of raspberries and vanilla flowers if the product contains no components of raspberries and vanilla.

The reader, upon conducting an overall assessment of the tea packaging, would gain the impression that the statements "raspberry" and "vanilla" refer to the aforementioned natural ingredients. The statement "fruit tea with natural aromas", printed in significantly smaller size, is not suitable for correcting the impression created by the product designation and the images of the fruits.

Conclusion

The Regional Court (LG) Düsseldorf has decided here very much in line with consumer interests. These should be able to recognise the true contents of the product when looking at packaging without having to rely on the "small print". An obscuring of the actual contents is misleading and was rightly prohibited by the Regional Court.