Staff
Monday, April 27, 2015 6:30 am

ATLANTA (From the Atlanta Business Chronicle) -- Paper products giant Georgia-Pacific claims its best-selling Angel Soft toilet tissue is getting ripped off by discount grocery chain Aldi.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific says the packaging of its Angel Soft toilet paper has been blatantly imitated by Aldi for Aldi's SoftTouch toilet paper, particularly the color of the label, images of clouds, a picture of a baby and the use of the word "soft."

"Despite having an entire universe of packaging options available to choose from, [Aldi] is manufacturing and selling bath tissue under the name 'Soft Touch' in packaging obviously designed to trade upon the goodwill of the Angel Soft" look, Georgia-Pacific claims. "Blatant imitation of this type creates a serious likelihood of confusion among consumers, and is anathema to the public interest."

Aldi "has been and is passing off its bath tissue as that of Georgia-Pacific," Georgia-Pacific adds.

Aldi operates a chain of nearly 1,400 low-price grocery stores from Kansas to the East Coast. Based in Batavia, Ill., Aldi launched an expansion in December 2013 aimed at opening 650 news stores by the end of 2018, with the goal of operating nearly 2,000 stores across the country. When finished with the expansion, Aldi says it will have stores coast-to-coast and serve more than 45 million customers per month.

Georgia-Pacific has been marketing the Angel Soft brand for 70 years, and the company say it is one of the most popular and successful toilet tissue brands in the United States.

In its lawsuit, Georgia-Pacific reveals that over the past five years, its revenues from the sale of Angel Soft toilet tissue total more than $7 billion. The company says it has invested more than $175 million in advertising and promoting Angel Soft in just the past five years, including Disney sweepstakes, the Angels in Action volunteer program, and the Bath Moments promotion on America's Funniest Home Videos.