Lifestyle Equities CV and another (Respondents) v Amazon UK Services Ltd and others (Appellants)
Case ID: 2022/0108
Case summary
Issue
This appeal concerns the application of EU and UK trade mark law to the cross-border marketing and sale of goods on the internet. The question for the Supreme Court is: Where goods marketed and sold on a foreign website are identical to goods for which trade marks are registered in the EU or UK, in what circumstances would the marketing and selling of such goods infringe the EU/UK trade marks?
Facts
The respondents (together, "Lifestyle") are the owners and exclusive licensees of a number of UK and EU trade marks relating to the "BEVERLY HILLS POLO CLUB" brand (the "UK/EU Marks"). Corresponding trade marks in the USA are owned by a commercially unrelated entity, which produces goods identical to those for which Lifestyle's trade marks are registered in the UK and EU (the "USA Branded Goods").
Lifestyle claims that the appellants (together, "Amazon") have infringed its rights in the UK/EU Marks by marketing and selling the USA Branded Goods to UK/EU customers via their USA website. In particular, Lifestyle argues that Amazon's advertisement and offer for sale of the US Branded Goods on the USA website "targeted" consumers in the UK/EU, in contravention of relevant UK and EU trade mark laws. Lifestyle claims in addition that, even if the marketing of the USA Branded Goods were not targeted at consumers in the UK/EU, Amazon nonetheless infringed Lifestyle's rights in the UK/EU Marks by selling and delivering the goods through its USA website to consumers in the UK/EU.
The High Court dismissed Lifestyle's claims, concluding that the listings of the USA Branded Goods on Amazon's USA website were not targeted at consumers in the UK/EU. The Court of Appeal overturned this decision and granted an injunction against Amazon. Amazon now appeals to the UK Supreme Court.
Judgment appealed
Parties
Appellant(s)
(1) Amazon UK Services Ltd
(2) Amazon Export Sales LLC
(3) Amazon.com Inc
(4) Amazon Europe Core SARL
(5) Amazon EU SARL
Respondent(s)
(1) Lifestyle Equities C.V.
(2) Lifestyle Licensing B.V.
Appeal
Justices
Lord Hodge, Lord Briggs, Lord Hamblen, Lord Burrows, Lord Kitchin
Hearing start date
15 November 2023
Hearing finish date
16 November 2023
| Watch hearing | ||
|---|---|---|
| 15 November 2023 | Morning session | Afternoon session |
| 16 November 2023 | Morning session | |
Judgment details
Judgment date
6 March 2024
Neutral citation
[2024] UKSC 8
- Judgment (PDF)
- Press Summary (PDF)
- Judgment on The National Archives (HTML version)
- Press Summary on The National Archives (HTML version)
- Judgment on BAILII (HTML version)
| Watch Judgment summary | |
|---|---|
| 6 March 2024 | Judgment summary |