DHL goes to court over rival’s claim
International Freighting Weekly (IFW) has reported that FedEx has been forced to retract claims made to Italian customers that DHL Express had ceased operating international express services into the US.
International Freighting Weekly (IFW) has reported that FedEx has been forced to retract claims made to Italian customers that DHL Express had ceased operating international express services into the US.
It has been reported that, in a statement to IFW, DHL confirmed it had initiated a court case “against a key competitor in a European country for approaching DHL customers with the misleading information that DHL Express had stopped, reduced or modified its express services to and from the US.”
IFW claim that the competitor is FedEx, “which had sent DHL Express customers a series of emails after DHL announced plans to withdraw from the US domestic market.”
The case was settled in an Italian court last month, which ordered FedEx to send out a letter to those customers acknowledging that the emails had been misleading and confirming that DHL Express continued to operate services to the US from Italy.
DHL also had the right to circulate the letter, but not to third parties.
Scott Price, CEO of DHL Express Europe, told IFW: “The industry is experiencing a tough year and competition is fierce. But these competitive activities must be kept within ethical and legal boundaries.
“Our US reorganisation should not be used by the competition as an excuse to mislead or scaremonger the market, and we will take action against anyone going out there with false claims.”
