A renowned cafe in Lahore, ‘Options’ has been fined with Rs. 5 Million for copying a logo of an international coffee chain ‘Starbucks’. They have also been ordered to publish an ad in newspapers for three days admitting that they have been deceiving people in the name of Starbucks.
The American based Starbucks had sent a complaint to the Competitive Commission of Pakistan (CCP) pointing that ‘Options’ cafe is engaged in the marketing, advertising, selling, and offering “Starbucks coffee” using the Starbucks marks on the signboard of its coffee house including on the packaging material, menus, flyers, its Facebook page, and other promotional material.
The CCP bench, in its final order, noted that although Options had stopped using the logo and also filed commitment to comply with its directions; however, since the unauthorized use of Starbucks marks spanned over a substantial period of time, the bench imposed a penalty of Rs5 Million on the company. The restaurant’s owner has been told to place advertisements in newspapers for three days confessing that he was deceiving people in the name of Starbucks.
The owner of the Lahore based cafe lives in Dubai and owns another restaurant in PAF society in Lahore.
An employee of the cafe while talking to Othernews.pk said that they have never been telling people that they were selling that particular coffee. He said the coffee machine only had the sticker of the US based coffee shop. He also said that the company had stopped using the logo five years ago as soon as the complaint was filed.