Ethical Coffee Company, a Swiss firm which produces Nespresso-compatible coffee capsules, said on Monday it had filed a complaint against Nestle before a French court in Paris court for patent infringement.
Nestle is accused by ECC of modifying the Nespresso machines to keep competitors’ capsules from all of them with a “harpoon” device in the new Pixie range which jams the capsules.
This mechanism prevents ECC’s capsules from working properly in these machines, thus violating European Patent EP 2 312 978 B1, held by ECC, the company claims.
ECC said in a statement that it had suffered losses of at least 150 million euros ($174 million) since 2010 due to the move.
In June last year, ECC won a legal suit against Nespresso in France when a Paris trade tribunal ruled against the Swiss multinational in an unfair competition suit filed in 2012.
