Pizza Hut Inc v Papa Johns International U

Pizza Hut, Inc. v. Papa John’s International U. S. Court of Appeals 5 th Circuit 2000 1

Facts 2

• Pizza Hut – False claim of superior ingredients – Undertook campaign to improve its pizza • using more and better quality ingredients 3

• Papa John’s – further emphasized message of superiority by focusing on specific ingredients • Claimed “fresh pack” method of producing tomato paste was superior to “most big chains” and “most pizza delivery chains” • Adopted new method of manufacturing dough (using ozonated filtered water) specifically for purpose of drawing negative comparisons to Pizza Hut 4

• Papa John’s – continued to use “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” in connection with more specific claims about sauce and dough 5

• Pizza Hut – sued to enjoin Papa John’s from • deceptive claims regarding sauce and crust • using slogan 6

District Court • Sauce and dough superiority claims false – “ambiguous and self-laudatory, consistent with the legal definition of non-actionable puffing” – By combining it with other, false claims, slogan became tainted – Made claim of superiority quantifiable • Enjoined its use 7

Court of Appeals – “Best Pizza Under One Roof” (Pizza Hut) – “Nobody Delivers Better” (Dominos) – “Best Pizza on the Block” (Donatos) – “Best Pizza Ever” (Pizza Inn) 8

– “The Best Beer in America” – “The most advanced home gaming system in the universe” 9

Held: • Ads making misleading claims about superiority of dough and sauce tainted general claim of superiority • 31 of 278 ads • Rejected claim that misleading specific claims became “encoded” in consumers’ mind • Reversed 10