The Barcelona Provincial Court rules in favour of Schweppes. Unbelievable but true.

To our utter astonishment and disbelief, this court, the Audiencia Provincial de Barcelona (Barcelona Provincial Court of Appeal), has not only overturned the ruling of the Juzgado de Primera Instancia (Court of First Instance), which found in our favour a few months ago, but also contradicts the Court of Justice of the European Union, which sided with us when answering the question referred to it by that same Court of First Instance (see previous post).

Our opinion has not changed one iota since this process began: all we did was buy British Schweppes tonic from British wholesalers, that is, goods already in free circulation within the European Economic Area. For us and for our customers, Schweppes is Schweppes, however much some people now want us to believe there are two different Schweppes.

This ruling opens the door for other brands to fragment the European Economic Area in the same way, undermining its principle of the Free Movement of Goods, at least in Spain.

For our part, we will see this through to the end.