Nespresso loses a new battle, would it win this war?

by chee leng-Oncoffeemakers
(Singapore)

Fust an online retailer is allowed to sell compatible Nespresso capsules. This is a ruling by a commercial court in Lausanne after it had banned them is the typical turn of event for Nespresso.

Nespresso is fighting many battles with numerous compatible Nespresso capsules makers, Nexpod, ECC, Sara Lee. They are also pursuing actions against retailers such as Denner, Saturn stores.

In all this legal cases, they win some, they lose some. In the most current case on Fust, they lost. Fust is able to sell Nespresso compatible capsules.

In fact, just last week, they lost another case against an Italian Coffee Company Caffee Vergnano. The court in Italy has ruled that Caffee Vergnano can continued to sell the compatible capsules.

Overall, I think Nespresso success in these law suits is about 50%, i.e for every 2 cases they file, they would win 1.

But, did they really win the case? I was having the thought that if consumers are buying the compatible capsules, in reality, Nespresso have lost the consumer.

MY $0.02

I have been following this Nespresso saga for two years. And everytime I see a win or lose by Nespresso, I cannot help but wonder if that particular segment of Nespresso customers is still there.

For instant, if Nespresso really succeed in preventing consumers from buying from Fust the online store, would the consumers go back to buying from Nespresso?

I doubt so. By making it painful and difficult for consumers to purchase compatible products does not mean that they would go back to buying from Nespresso.

I know that Nespresso is fully aware of the reason why consumers are not buying from them and they are doing many things about it.

But I personally think that at this juncture (especially now that the patent protection is over), it is futile.

Why not be gracious and be gentleman about it? I feel that if Nespresso wants to fight back and as we notice that the reason is mainly about pricing, why not market their other products?

For lower cost, they can perhaps market their Dolce Gusto? In this manner, they still enjoy a good relationship with their customers.

By using legal suits to force other companies out of it does not reflect very well on a company that talks about "Good Food, Good Life".

I still go back to the thought on if the interest is high on compatible products and they are doing a good job, why not invest in them?

If you cannot earn a dollar, would you rather be still earning fifty cents or nothing. The action that Nespresso is taking is basically alienating their customers.

In the end, if the customers cannot get their compatible capsules, they would simply go to a competitor brand. By partnering with an established compatible capsules company (Sara Lee, ECC), Nespresso can still go on to earn a decent income, isn't that good?