KARI SHOE CHAIN INITIATES LITIGATION WITH FAS OVER CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING

KARI SHOE CHAIN INITIATES LITIGATION WITH FAS OVER CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING

KARI SHOE CHAIN INITIATES LITIGATION WITH FAS OVER CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING
On December 1, 2023, Kari Company (TIN 7702764909) filed an application with the Moscow arbitration court (case no. A40-283677/2023). The firm demanded that the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), adopted on September 14, 2023, be declared illegal. The antimonopoly authority refused to initiate a case of violation of the law by the Clothing House company (which manages the Zenden shoe chain).

After the TsentrObuv network, which was the leader in the Russian market until 2015, became bankrupt, Kari took the first place in the market. Its share in financial terms is estimated by experts at 12%. The Zenden network is in second place with a 4% market share. In 2022, the company's net profit reached 537.6 million, while Kari's figure was 10.4 billion.

The basis for contacting the FAS from Kari was the contextual advertising of a competitor. The Clothing House, which manages the Zenden shoe store chain, placed an advertisement in Yandex that appeared on the keyword query kari in the search results. Since the exclusive rights to the kari brand belong to the Kari company, the company considered such use of its brand to be a violation of laws and business practices.

According to a company representative quoted by RBC, the Zenden network violated the principles of integrity, fairness and reasonableness. The owner of the brand has not yet estimated the amount of losses. But Kari considered that Zenden's actions contradict the legislation on protection of competition and in July last year appealed to the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

The antimonopoly authority responded to Kari's statement with a refusal. FAS employees did not find unfair competition in Zenden's actions. The regulator noted that for their legal assessment it was important to establish the impact they have on the competitive environment. In particular, it could be about misleading consumers about the response they received to a search query in Yandex.

However, after the key query kari was entered in the search, the corresponding link to the Zenden brand website appeared at the very bottom of the first page of the search results with the indication "advertising". The link led to the website of the Clothing House company, and the snippet contained an indication of the Zenden online store. At the same time, the elements of corporate identity and the symbols of trademarks (Zenden and Kari) differ so much that they cannot be confused.

Experts note that similar "Kari" lawsuits involving the Federal Antimonopoly Service have happened before. In 2020, the shoe chain managed to get the regulator to recognize violations of the law in advertising distributed by the German Deichmann chain. But then the word kari was used directly in the advertising text.

It is known that the plaintiff attracted the Yandex company (TIN 7736207543) as a third party to participate in the case. The trial is scheduled for the end of February 2024. Judge Natalia Devitskaya will have to find out whether the FAS employees really made a mistake by refusing to initiate an administrative offense case.

09.02.2024