The Russian network Kari filed a lawsuit against the Federal Antimonopoly Service in an attempt to challenge the refusal to open a case for violation of antitrust laws by the company that owns another network, Zenden. RBC drew attention to the statement of claim, which also includes Yandex.
The lawsuit was registered on December 4 of last year, the first hearing is scheduled for February 29. Kari’s demands were sent to the company “House of Clothes” LLC is a legal entity through which footwear retailer Zenden operates.
According to Dmitry Andreev, director of Kari’s legal department, the reason for the statement was Zenden’s contextual advertising on the Yandex search engine.
The brand used the word kari as a keyword; Kari LLC had previously registered it as a trademark. According to a company representative, users entered the word kari into Yandex and the search engine returned Zenden’s website as the first link.
The company sent a complaint to the FAS, but the service refused to initiate a case.
Kari is convinced that Zenden’s actions violate the law and are contrary to business practices and integrity. The retailer also points out that Zenden misled consumers.
According to Andreev, the company has not yet assessed the magnitude of possible losses. Zenden did not comment on the situation to the publication.
FAS position
The Service found no signs of unfair competition in Zenden’s actions. The FAS in its decisions does not start from the use of a certain brand as such. The Service evaluates the impact of such actions on the competitive environment as a whole.
This can manifest itself, for example, in the combination of services from different manufacturers.
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
