Marks and Spencer's has been left red faced after using a bottle of Aldi wine to promote garden furniture on its website.
Aldi poked fun at its rival for using its £7.49 bottle of Specially Selected Côtes De Provence Blanc in an online listing for a £669 garden table set.
Drawing attention to the bottle, Aldi posted on X, formerly Twitter: “@marksandspencer drink Aldi wine pass it on.”
The wine featured on the M&S patio table is now out of stock on the Aldi website.
Social media users were quick to mock M&S, with one writing: “If only they'd bought their garden furniture from Aldi then they might be able to afford a Marks and Spencer bottle of wine.”
Another added: “I smell a lawsuit in your favour.”
However, one said: “Brilliant idea by the M&S marketing team! Free advertising from Aldi for a very nice table and chairs set.”
M&S and Aldi have been the subject of two well-publicised court battles in recent years over ‘copycat’ products.
In one now-settled case, M&S accused Aldi of breaching its copyright with a own-brand version of a Colin the Caterpillar cake, Cuthbert the Caterpillar.
And in February, Aldi lost an appeal against a High Court ruling which found it had copied the design of Marks & Spencer’s light-up Christmas gin bottles.
A judge ruled in January last year that the German supermarket chain had infringed the design of its rival’s product.
Judge Richard Hacon said there were “striking” similarities which would be “significant” to shoppers, stating that the differences pointed out by Aldi were “relatively minor”.
Aldi took the case to the Court of Appeal but judges dismissed the appeal, unanimously agreeing that Judge Hacon was “fully entitled” to make his decision.
The Standard has contacted M&S for comment.
