Plant “Kristall” asked to exclude Jagermeister from parallel imports

The Kaluga Distillery (KLVZ) Kristall sent a letter to the Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov with a request to exclude the herbal liqueur from the German manufacturer Mast-Jagermeister SE from parallel imports. About it informs TASS with a link to a copy of the letter.

KLVZ Kristall asks to consider the issue of exclusion from the list of goods for parallel import of the alcoholic beverage Jagermeister, which is not unique,” the letter says.

Kristall sent requests to support this initiative to Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Vladislav Shapsha, Governor of the Kaluga Region, Anatoly Artamonov, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Budget and Financial Markets, and Gennady Sklyar, State Duma Deputy.

After launching the production of Alter Heiler and Konig Heiler bitters, the company began to face “unprecedented and illegal pressure” from the German manufacturer, Kristall noted. They recalled that in May, Mast-Jagermeister demanded compensation in the amount of about 512 million rubles through the court from KLVZ. for the sale of goods that the German manufacturer considered counterfeit.

KLVZ General Director Artem Chubukin, quoted by the press service, called the allegations of illegal use of the Mast-Jagermeister trademarks false, since Russian liqueurs are “unique products” of the plant and are produced according to the original recipe.

May 29 became knownthat Mast-Jagermeister filed two lawsuits against KLVZ demanding to recover 314.8 million rubles from the Russian enterprise. and 315 million rubles. compensation accordingly. The defendants are Alfa-M LLC (a legal entity of the Krasnoe and Beloe retail chain) and the WineStyle chain of stores.

In a Russian company declaredthat they will file a counterclaim in the amount of about 500 million rubles. to the German Mast-Jagermeister. This amount takes into account both direct losses of the plant, as well as lost profits and image damage that Kristall suffered due to the “unfair competition” of the German company, the press service explained.

Mast-Jagermeister suspended deliveries of products to Russia in early November 2022. A few days later, the Kaluga plant began supplying domestic Alter Heiler and Konig Heiler bitters to retail chains.

After that, the German company began to “put pressure on the manufacturer and retailers, trying to prohibit Kristall from producing its own bitters in Russia, and wholesalers and retail chains from selling these products”, argued KLVZ in a letter to the FAS. It was clarified that letters from Mast-Jagermeister were received by the Red and White and Chizhik networks (part of X5 group).

In April 2023 FAS acknowledged the German company Mast-Jagermeister as a violator of the Law on Protection of Competition. The department’s document stated that Jagermeister should not have called Kristall’s products counterfeit. The FAS issued a warning to Mast-Jagermeister.