The EU Court ruled in favor of IKEA in a dispute with a Belgian far-right party
On September 8, the EU Court ruled in favor of the Swedish company IKEA in a case against the Belgian far-right party Vlaams Belang. The party had used elements of the IKEA brand in an anti-immigration campaign.
In 2022, Vlaams Belang presented the so-called “IKEA plan”—a program to reform Belgium’s immigration policy. The campaign’s name was an acronym for IKEA—standing for “Immigratie Kan Echt Anders,” which translates to “Immigration Can Really Be Different.”
For the campaign’s visual design, the party used IKEA’s blue-and-yellow logo, as well as characters styled after the illustrations in the Swedish company’s furniture assembly instructions.
IKEA stated at the time that it did not want its brand to be used to create the impression that the company supports certain political positions.
In November 2022, IKEA filed a lawsuit against Vlaams Belang in a Belgian court, accusing the party of violating trademark law. The Belgian court referred the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for clarification on how to balance the right to freedom of expression with a company’s right to protect its trademark in such a situation.
The EU Court ultimately ruled that a political party cannot unconditionally invoke freedom of speech to justify the use of a well-known trademark. The Court ruled that, in the Vlaams Belang case, the use of the IKEA brand could have caused significant damage to its reputation, and therefore IKEA’s rights and interests may outweigh the party’s right to freedom of expression and political parody.
“The owner of a well-known trademark may prohibit its use by a political party unless the latter has demonstrated that its freedom of expression takes precedence over the rights and interests of that owner,” the court stated.
The decision was influenced, in particular, by the fact that Vlaams Belang had no connection to IKEA’s business activities, as well as by the fact that people might perceive the use of the brand as a sign of the company’s support for the party’s campaign. The case will now be referred back to a Belgian court.
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