Aldi Sued By Major Snack Food Company Over Product Packaging

Benton’s Vanilla Wafers on the left, Nabisco Nilla Wafers on the right. (Credit: Joshua Johnston | Aldi Reviewer)Mondelez International is one of the largest snack food companies in the world. It’s a successor company to Kraft Foods, which was originally founded in 1923. In 2012, Kraft Foods split into two companies: the snack food component became Mondelez, while the grocery side became Kraft Foods Group, which later merged with Heinz to form Kraft Heinz.

On May 27, 2025, Mondelez International sued the grocery store Aldi over the grocer’s product packaging.

Mondelez may not be a household name, but its brands are. Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Nabisco, Cadbury, and Trident are among Mondelez’s many brands. Several of those brands sit at the center of Mondelez’s lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Illinois.

The lawsuit begins as follows:

This is a Complaint for damages and injunctive relief arising from Defendant Aldi, Inc.’s (“Defendant” or “Aldi”) use of private label product packaging that blatantly copies and trades upon the valuable reputation and goodwill Mondelēz has developed in its longstanding, highly distinctive, and well-known trade dress for numerous of its cookie and cracker snack products. Defendant has a pattern and practice of engaging in the unlawful behavior underlying Mondelēz’s claims. Defendant’s actions are likely to deceive and confuse consumers and dilute the distinctive quality of Mondelēz’s unique product packaging, and if not stopped, threaten to irreparably harm Mondelēz and its valuable brands.

“Mondelēz,” the complaint continues, “seeks damages and injunctive relief based upon Defendant’s willful trademark infringement, trade dress infringement, unfair competition, unjust enrichment and dilution under federal and state law.”

The complaint includes a number of comparison pictures.

We’ve written in the past about how similar Aldi products look to name brands. We’ve also noted how Aldi has been sued over packaging before, including by King’s Hawaiian, Welch’s, Coca-Cola, and bath tissue maker Georgia-Pacific.

At the time of publication, Aldi has not responded to the lawsuit. Instead, the grocer announced on May 31st that Aldi USA CEO Jason Hart has been promoted to COO of Aldi’s international operations, while Aldi USA’s current COO, Atty McGrath, is being promoted to CEO of Aldi USA.