Goodyear Dunlop Defend UK Product Rights

At the end of February Goodyear Dunlop released details of its campaign to “to protect UK customers from unknowingly buying tyres that were not designed for road conditions in this market.” As a result of this campaign, three companies have submitted to a high court injunction and have had to send 600 Dunlop tyres for recycling, to prevent these tyres from being used on UK roads. According to the company, this is the start of an initiative to remove unapproved tyres from the EU market.

The Goodyear Dunlop campaign targets all unauthorised imported tyres bearing the famous Dunlop and SP trademarks, but designed for their local markets, and not imported or recommended by the UK company. The company found that a number of these tyres originate from, and were designed for, Asian markets.

Apollo Tyres Ltd bought Dunlop Tyres International (Pty) Ltd (Dunlop South Africa) for US$62 million in January 2006.