Plaintiff company was the exclusive agent for a branded beer (‘Molson Coors’). Defendant had Molson Coors artwork/marks on its vans and stationery. Plaintiff instituted a case for unfair competition, based, inter alia, on Article 32B of the Commercial Code (Cap. 13 of the laws of Malta) on misleading advertising (which implements Article 3 of Directive 2006/114/EC). Defendant argued that this was not true, and that it had previously had a gentleman’s agreement to distribute the said products.
The court noted that plaintiff was not expecting to stop parallel trading; it objected to the fact that defendant company was acting as if it was the exclusive agent of the foreign company. The said foreign company had objected to the defendant’s advertising of its product, both on its vans and on its website.