PPC War: Interflora Vs. M&S – The Come Back

Christophe Bernigaud — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:35:29 +0000

The war between Interflora and Marks & Spencer has been on-going for some time now, here is a quick wrap up of the situation:

Interflora sued M&S in 2009 for bidding on its trademark in the UK (when a user would search for Interflora in the UK, the M&S ad would appear).
The High Court of Justice of Wales and England refers the questions to the ECJ
2010, the ECJ ruled that Google was not liable for trade mark infringement by selling the advertising service to rival companies.
March 2011, ECJ‘ Niilo Jääskinen - the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) – advised for Marks & Spencer to be found liable for trade mark infringement by using ‘Interflora’ as a Google AdWord keyword.

Last week, the ECJ ruled in favor of Interflora which needs to be applied by the High Court in the UK in order to appreciate M&S’ liability.

The ECJ said that trademark owners can stop companies using their brands as triggers for adverts for competing products if that use “substantially interferes with the proprietor’s use of its trademark to acquire or preserve a reputation capable of attracting consumers and retaining their loyalty”. The interference is yet to be defined though…

Interflora’s marketing director, Michael Barringer, says: “This judgment backs all the hard work and effort we have put in to defending the Interflora brand. People searching the internet for “Interflora” want “Interflora, the flower experts and no one else. Our brand stands for quality and service and together with our network of independent florists, we have spent the last 80 years building this reputation.”

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Christmas 2010: a snapshot of Online European Shoppers

Christophe Bernigaud — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:13:48 +0000

Today Monday November 29th is ‘Cyber Monday‘. The biggest shopping day of the year?

Or is it Monday December 6th 2010 referred as ‘Mega Monday‘ where sales are expected to hit over €uro 1million per minute…

October 2010, IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index is expected to increase by 16 per cent in 2010 vs. 2009 for online Christmas sales, reaching £6.4billion.

Different forecasts come from various sources. For instance, Hi Media expect the European online Christmas sales to represent over 10 per cent of the European overall Christmas sales, representing respectively €uro 32 billion of the overall €uro 313 billion.

The UK, Germany and France will represent the highest total spend for the Christmas 2010 season, accounting for 65 per cent of the overall European Christmas spend:

UK – €uro 77.2 billion
Germany – €uro 64.5 billion
France – €uro 62.5 billion
Spain – €uro 31.2 billion

Denmark, Norway and Sweden are forecasted to spend the least overall at €5.4bn, €6.1bn and €9.6bn respectively.

How strong is online Christmas shopping in Europe?

UK – highest in Europe with €uro 13 billion – i.e 17% of the overall 2010 UK retail Christmas sales
Germany – €uro 8.2 billion – i.e 13% of the overall 2010 Germany retail Christmas sales
France – €uro 6.3 billion – i.e 10% of the overall 2010 France retail Christmas sales
Spain – €uro 624 million- i.e 2% of the overall 2010 Spain retail Christmas sales

Norway will spend €uro 0.73 billion online and Denmark €uro 0.61 billion.

Pierpaolo Zollo, from Kelkoo says: “Internet sales across Europe are set to be more important than ever this Christmas, with consumers spending record amounts online, and online commerce acting as the primary driving force for overall retail growth during the festive season.”

Don’t forget to track your online audience thanks to free simple tools such as Google Analytics and make sure you run an online reputation management program.

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Global Search Engine Marketing & Social Media News And Analysis » Regional Processes

PPC War: Interflora Vs. M&S – The Come Back

Christmas 2010: a snapshot of Online European Shoppers