EU court rules in favor of Ikea against Belgian far-right party

A far-right attempt at political parody was dismantled by a European court like an old Billy bookcase. Flemish party Vlaams Belang’s anti-immigration campaign spoofing Ikea’s assembly instructions “may cause significant detriment” to the furniture-maker’s reputation, the Court of Justice of the European Union said in a ruling Tuesday. In 2022, Vlaams Belang presented its “IKEA-Plan”, standing for “Immigratie Kan Echt Anders” or “Immigration can really be different.” Proposals to reform Belgium’s immigration policy were illustrated with the Swedish giant’s blue-and-yellow logo and the smiley characters found in its instruction sheets. “We do not wish our brand to be used to suggest that we support certain positions when we do not,” an Ikea spokesperson said at the time. The firm sued Vlaams Belang in Belgium in November 2022, alleging trademark law infringement. The Belgian business court then asked the CJEU for its advice on how to strike the balance between freedom of expression and the right of a business to defend its trademark. “It does not appear that the use of the Ikea trade marks for the sole purpose of taking advantage of their reputation to reinforce a political message … takes precedence over the rights and interests” of the Swedish brand, the CJEU said in its press release about the verdict. The fact that Vlaams Belang’s campaign was completely unrelated to Ikea’s business — and that people may have believed that the company had endorsed it — weighed into the ruling, said Elena Izyumenko, assistant professor in intellectual property law at Amsterdam’s Institute for Information Law. “What the court suggests is that a private company can suppress controversial political expression if it can create any impression of a link between the company and the opinion expressed in the parody,” Izyumenko said. The case will now return to the Belgian court, which will rely on the CJEU’s interpretation of the law to issue its ruling. Looking at the CJEU’s ruling, “It’s almost obvious that it will rule against Vlaams Belang,” Izyumenko said. “The non-profit organization Vrijheidsfonds of Vlaams Belang takes note of the ruling of the European Court of Justice and will thoroughly examine its scope in the context of further legal proceedings,” a spokesperson for the party said. Ikea did not immediately respond to a request for comment.