The Colombian trade and industry authority has ruled that Colombian dairy and yogurt producer Alpina Productos Alimenticios carried out unfair marketing practices against French rival Danone, but imposed a fine much lower than what Danone had sought.
The unfair strategy included “registering in Colombia a series of identical or similar brands to those commonly used by Danone worldwide” as well as using concepts in advertising spots that Danone had also previously used in other countries, the superintendency of Industry and Trade said this week.
This strategy, the authority said, involved the “use in commerce of initiatives to identify products that were the result of efforts by Danone and not of Alpina Productos Alimenticios,” it said.
Since Alpina had registered in Colombia brands identical or very similar to those used by Danone worldwide, like Activia and Licuado, it unfairly prevented Danone from entering into the Colombian market with those brands it had built internationally, the authority said.
Brands like "Mon Premier Danone” were changed into “Mi Primer Alpinito,” it said.
A second unfair obstacle used by Alpina was the use of advertising pieces that were considered by the authority as an imitation to those created by Danone for its Actimel product.
“Finally, a third unfair obstacle was the use for commerce by Alpina of concepts related to the expressions Defensis to identify the bacteria of its functional product YOX” as well as other expressions like "4x4," all created by Danone for its products, it said.
The superintendency said that Alpina´s actions were not just the natural reaction of a marketer to a new competitor but instead were aimed at putting unfair obstacles to their entry into the Colombian market.
Alpina was ordered to renounce all brands it copied and pay a fine equivalent to $64,293 to cover legal expenses. Danone had demanded the equivalent of nearly $623,000, but the authority said that amount was not properly accredited.
The sentence can be appealed in the Superior Court of Bogota.
Danone has been operating for nearly seven years in Colombia in a partnership. It operates a plant in the Andean country in partnership with local dairy company Alqueria.
Alpina traces its yogurt manufacturing roots in Colombia to the 1950s, when it bought the land to build its first plant. In 2010, it opened the Entrerrios yogurt plant, which it describes as “one of the most modern in Latin America."
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