- 相关推荐
法律类文章精选：TROUSER SUIT
1 TROUSER SUIT
The European Court sides with Levi Strauss in its battle with Tesco
Dateline: New York
IT WAS a ruling that had consumers seething with anger and many a free trader crying foul. On November 20th the European Court of Justice decided that Tesco, a British supermarket chain, should not be allowed to import jeans made by America's Levi Strauss from outside the European Union and sell them at cut-rate prices without getting permission first from the jeans maker. Ironically, the ruling is based on an EU trademark directive that was designed to protect local, not American, manufacturers from price dumping. The idea is that any brand-owning firm should be allowed to position its goods and segment its markets as it sees fit: Levi's jeans, just like Gucci handbags, must be allowed to be expensive.
Levi Strauss persuaded the court that, by selling its jeans cheaply alongside soap powder and bananas, Tesco was destroying the image and so the value of its brands--which could only lead to less innovation and, in the long run, would reduce consumer choice. Consumer groups and Tesco say that Levi's case is specious. The supermarket argues that it was just arbitraging the price differential between Levi's jeans sold in America and Europe--a service performed a million times a day in financial markets, and one that has led to real benefits for consumers. Tesco has been selling some 15,000 pairs of Levi's jeans a week, for about half the price they command in specialist stores approved by Levi Strauss. Christine Cross, Tesco's head of global non-food sourcing, says the ruling risks "creating a Fortress Europe with a vengeance".
The debate will rage on, and has implications well beyond casual clothes (Levi Strauss was joined in its lawsuit by Zino Davidoff, a perfume maker). The question at its heart is not whether brands need to control how
【法律类文章：TROUSER SUIT】相关文章：
Follow suit：仿效别人05-04
如何撰写教育教学类文章04-28
怎样撰写“解题指导”类的文章04-30
法律类社会实践报告12-10
学会用法律保护自己文章12-30
浅谈生活情感类文章的技巧指导05-01
自然科学类文章阅读浅谈04-30
介绍我的法律类自学考试经验04-29
作文 议论类的文章应当以论点为宜04-24
情感类文章教学心得体会04-26