Nespresso won legal suit against Denner in Swiss court -it is good or bad?

by Chee Leng
(Singapore)

Nespresso is currently fighting a few cases to have the "me too" Nespresso capsules taken off the shelves in Europe.

In this article, they have just won the case against Denner, that is owned by Swiss retailer Migros. The selling price for the generic capsules is half the price of Nespresso capsules.

In France, Nespresso is fighting similar case against Sara Lee and Ethical Coffee Company that is selling lower priced capsules.

With this decisions being made in Swiss, it is one up for Nespresso, that might use this as a precedent to argue their case in France.

The question is it is good for consumers like us? If companies such as Ethical Coffee Company would to lose, we would be forced back to using Nespresso capsules at a higher price.

What is the impact if Nespresso lose? What would happened?

Generally speaking, piracy is bad. It lowers the value of the product that companies spend millions in developing.

And if companies cannot make enough money to recover their costs, they might not innovate and we would stop getting ground breaking products.

But, this might be slightly different in the coffee industry. I believe it grows with collective wisdom, the whole industry gets better.

In my opinion, sharing is good. Competition forces companies to innovate and come out with better products.

Look at the filter drip coffee maker, there wasn't any patents, so companies keep coming out with newer models, lower pricing.

By sharpening their edge, companies manages their cost, pump up their innovation. Ultimately, consumers get to enjoys better coffee machine at lower pricing.

And companies learn to discipline their costings and worked on their innovations.

Nespresso have their system for close to 2 decades. Yet, in terms of single serve technology, they are not as refined as Keurig or Tassimo, that are relatively new comer.

It might be Nespresso positioning to talk only about coffee, but with their stable of products (in Nestle), would it not be better if they have a wider range to attract more consumers?

Now, with people attacking this closed market of theirs, it might not be a bad thing.

If they would to lose this golden goose, they would need to innovate Nespresso in order to compete and make some money.

It is then, we would see new products, perhaps even a hit product that can bring in more money for them.

I think John would loves George to bring some new Nespresso stuff to heaven too!:)

My two cents...