Food and drink

Thinking - Blog

Supply chain sustainability: new rules, new risks

Published on 05 August 2024. By Sophie Tuson, Senior Associate, Environment and Climate Change Practice Lead

On 25 July 2024, the EU's new flagship supply chain law, the Corporate Sustainability and Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), came into force.

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RPC Bites #63: Aldi Kefir - copycat or collab? No more carbon credits for Brewdog and a rollercoaster for Carlsberg's portfolio

Published on 30 July 2024. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Sarah Mountain, Partner and Harpreet Kaur, Senior Associate and Ben Mark, Partner

Discount supermarket giant, Aldi is no stranger to pushing the boundaries of IP law, often crossing the line between "inspired" alternative products and "copycat" products. It was no surprise then, when it recently launched its own-label kefir named "Beautiful Everyday", with a stark likeness to Bio-tiful Gut Health's kefir range.

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RPC Bites #62: misleading 'freshly baked bread' claims, trademark troubles for Campari and McDonalds and more

Published on 25 June 2024. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Sarah Mountain, Partner and Harpreet Kaur, Senior Associate and Ben Mark, Partner

It was crunch time for the long-standing burger related trademark dispute between McDonald's and Supermac's on 5 June 2024, with the European General Court (EGC) partially revoking McDonald's BIG MAC trademark (the EUTM) in the EU, as the fast-food giant failed to prove genuine use of the EUTM in respect of various goods and services. The long-standing beef between the parties and the EGC's decision is summarised below.

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RPC Bites #61: Trade mark trouble for Tony's Chocolonely, ASA scalding for Jack Daniels but Hovis fare better and FSA guidance on vegan labelling

Published on 05 April 2024. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Sarah Mountain, Partner and Harpreet Kaur, Senior Associate and Ben Mark, Partner

In Germany, confectionary giant, Mondelez has obtained an injunction against Tony's Chocolonely to prevent its use of a specific shade of purple packaging which (on Mondelez' case) infringes trade marks protecting its Milka brand.

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RPC Bites #60: M&S vs Aldi, UKIPO win for Oatly and ASA guidance on supplement marketing

Published on 29 February 2024. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Sarah Mountain, Partner and Harpreet Kaur, Senior Associate and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome back to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of the key legal, regulatory, and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure.

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #59: Festive Bumper Issue

Published on 21 December 2023. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome back to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a festive flavour of key legal, regulatory, and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy and Happy Christmas and New Year to all of our readers!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #58: Trade mark troubles, cheese-y appeals, warm ice cream and low-alcohol labelling...

Published on 29 November 2023. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome back to RPC Bites. With a definite chill in the autumn air, our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a warming flavour of key legal, regulatory, and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #57: New FSA guidance on CBD consumption, "irresponsible" alcohol ads and greenwashing accusations strike Tesco

Published on 17 October 2023. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #56 - HFSS delays, Percy Pig's legal pursuits and Getir fails to deliver on promotion…

Published on 28 July 2023. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #55 - BrewDog gold can competition strikes again and Miller High Life cans crushed by Belgian customs

Published on 27 April 2023. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #54 – Aldi infringes M&S's design rights, ban on single use plastics and BrewDog pays for "solid gold" ad

Published on 10 February 2023. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites Christmas Bumper Issue #53 - is turkey off the menu this Christmas? Government sugar reduction targets not met amid HFSS delays

Published on 23 December 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #52 – trade mark wars: Red Bull v Bullards, Tesco v Lidl and Heineken v Virgin

Published on 14 December 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

The Food, Beverage and Cosmetics Law Review: United Kingdom - Second Edition

Published on 14 November 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

RPC is excited to announce that the Second Edition UK chapter of the Food, Beverage and Cosmetics Law Review has been published and is available to download.

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #50 – potential HFSS U-turn, hard seltzers under fire again and AU Vodka v NE10 Vodka

25 October 2022

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

Next round of HFSS restrictions land – are you ready?

Published on 30 September 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Sarah Mountain, Partner

In July 2020 the Government launched its tackling obesity strategy. In the strategy, the Government announced a number of measures to help people live healthier lives. These included consulting on front of pack labelling, requiring large out of home food businesses to add calorie labels to the food they sell, consulting on introducing calorie labelling on alcohol, and legislating to end the promotion of products deemed high in fat, sugar and/or salt (HFSS) by restricting volume promotions and placement in certain locations. In addition to these measures, the Government announced its intention to ban HFSS products being shown on TV before 9pm and paid-for adverts online.

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #49 – Kellogg's HFSS legal action fails, Ellie Goulding's seltzer falls foul of ASA rules and is the 'alcohol free' threshold about to change

Published on 29 July 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #48 – proposed salt and sugar tax omitted, lo/no alcohol drinks association launched in the UK and Cuthbert the caterpillar returns

Published on 15 June 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #47 –Kellogg's takes on the Government, certain HFSS restrictions are postponed and ingestible CBD products fall foul of FSA rules

Published on 17 May 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #46 – new rules on advertising alcohol free drinks pending, Portman Group issues guidance for hard seltzer labels and a taxing finding for flapjacks

Published on 21 April 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #45 - Waitrose concerned by Asda's 'Just Essentials' range, HFSS restrictions potentially delayed further and the end of free-range eggs (for now)

Published on 31 March 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites 44 - UK IPO finds gin-uine use of trade mark, another copycat product battle and plastic packaging to be scrapped for fruit and veg

Published on 15 March 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites #43 – Colin and Cuthbert - friends again? The ASA reprimands Oatly and Lipton Ice Tea over green claims and calorie labelling coming soon

Published on 10 February 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Welcome to RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!!

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Thinking - Publication

The Food, Beverage and Cosmetics Law Review: United Kingdom

Published on 20 January 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

RPC is excited to announce that the UK chapter of the very first Food, Beverage and Cosmetics Law Review has been published and is available to download.

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Thinking - Publication

RPC Bites New Year Bumper Issue– M&S v Aldi (again), Bitcoin and pizza is not a welcome combo for the ASA and a green start to 2022 for Morrisons and McDonalds

Published on 19 January 2022. By Ciara Cullen, Partner, Consumer Brands & Retail Sector Lead and Ben Mark, Partner

Happy New Year and welcome to our New Year Bumper Edition of RPC Bites. Our aim in the next 2 minutes is to provide you with a flavour of some key legal, regulatory and commercial developments in the Food & Drink sector over the last fortnight… with the occasional bit of industry gossip thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!

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