Tennant Company has sent a ‘cease and desist’ letter to major competitor Karcher following a blog statement made by the German-based manufacturer earlier this month.
Karcher had stated, ‘The US cleaning equipment manufacturer Tennant has pulled back from its controversial claims for so-called ec-H2O technology in scrubber-driers significantly after Karcher initiated legal or regulatory action against the company at the beginning of September 2011 for misleading advertising.’
“We believe that Karcher’s latest statement on March 8, 2012 is misleading, and we are sending Karcher a letter to cease and desist. We unequivocally stand behind all of the advertising claims we have made about ec-H2O technology,” stated Tennant Company vice president and general counsel Heidi Wilson.
“Frankly, we are surprised by Karcher’s actions, given that the only legal authority to issue a comment regarding our ec-H2O advertising, the UK Trading Standards Service, decided to take no further action after examining evidence supporting our ec-H20 technology ad claims.
“The fact that product marketing messages evolve over time should come as no surprise – with Tennant or any other company. Our ec-H2O technology has been in the marketplace for four years and sales continue to grow because ec-H2O works.”
Tennant added that it remained committed to its ‘growing platform of water-based technologies like ec-H2O and to revolutionising the cleaning industry. As we do, we will continue to draw fire from competitors that would prefer we did not aggressively innovate or advertise the benefits of our products. We will provide any pertinent updates regarding the legal proceedings as they become available.’