The A1 Civil Division of the Supreme Court rejected as unfounded, inadmissible and vague the appeal filed by a supermarket chain in Northern Greece, which was obliged to pay the detergent company Ariel the sum of 297,000 euros, as a fake product manufacturing plant had been uncovered in Halkidiki and 4,460 Ariel monkey bottles, 40 measuring cups, as well as 22,000 cosmetic bottles (gels, foams, etc.) had been confiscated by the Police.

In more detail, the Areios Pagos upheld an appeal decision that obliges the owner of a supermarket chain, although it has closed, to pay 272,000 euros at Procter & Gamble Company pis an American multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Cincinnati and its subsidiary and exclusive representative in Greece of its products.

In particular, in 2013 the Police, after a raid on two warehouses, in Lakkoma, Halkidiki, revealed a manufacturing plant for counterfeit products, which were channeled into the retail trade or destined to be made available to the consumer public, through a Northern Helladian supermarket chain. The police officers of the Thessaloniki Security Service identified thousands of imitation laundry detergent and cosmetic products. Thus, 4,460 bottles of laundry detergent were confiscated, which were monkey products, as well as 22,000 bottles of cosmetics (gels, foams, etc.).

At the same time, 3 liquid production and bottling units were found in the two warehouses, 19 tanks (each with a capacity of one ton) containing raw materials for the manufacture of counterfeit products, empty bottles, a lifting machine and delivery notes of the supermarket chain for a quantity of 5,000 of detergent bottles.

Then in May 2013, the 52-year-old owner of the supermarket chain was arrestedwho was the owner of the warehouses and was charged with violations of trademark laws, unfair competition, forgery, etc.

According to the decision of the Court of Appeal, the managers of the supermarket chain “for the purpose of unfair competition and against the moral users, made illegal use in the transactions of the trademarks and special distinguishing features, the beneficiaries of which are the multinational company, placing them on the packaging of the non-genuine liquids detergents that they made available for consumption, through their supermarket stores, in a way that could cause confusion to the consumer public as to the origin of the detergents, presenting them as genuine”. And they were forced to pay the multinational company the sum of 297,000 euros.

The representatives of the supermarkets appealed to the Areio Pagos requesting that the decision of the Appeal Court of Thessaloniki against them be annulled, but their application was rejected.