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EasyGroup

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EasyGroup Ltd (styled as easyGroup, or simply easy) is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded in 1998. It is headquartered in London, United Kingdom and privately owned by Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

EasyGroup Ltd
Formerly
  • Gregshot Limited (2000)
  • Easygroup IP Licensing Limited (2000-2014)[1]
Company typePrivate
IndustryConglomerate
Founded1998; 26 years ago (1998)
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Productsvarious
OwnerSir Stelios Haji-Ioannou
SubsidiariesEasyGroup IP Licensing Ltd
Websiteeasy.com

Corporate affairs

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An easyJet aircraft
 
A easyBus minibus
 
easyHotel in Glasgow

Overview

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The company was established to expand the "easy" brand following the launch of EasyJet in 1995. The first use of "easy" after EasyJet was the EasyInternetcafé established in June 1999,[2] followed by EasyRentacar in 2000 which was renamed to EasyCar in 2000.[3] The group is registered in the Cayman Islands,[4] but operates from its office in Kensington, London.

easyGroup is the holding company controlling the "easy" family of brands. Through its wholly owned subsidiary EasyGroup IP Licensing Ltd, the company licences the Easy brand to other businesses. The easyGroup of companies have a complex structure that contains elements of a generic conglomerate and a keiretsu, and sometimes it simply licences its brand. easyGroup publishes brand guidelines for all Easy companies to follow.[5]

The easyGroup logo is known for its distinctive orange colour, Pantone 021.[6]

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In 2002, Easyart.com (now King and McGaw) faced legal allegations from easyGroup over its use of the easy name, accusing Easyart of "passing off" on easyGroup's good name.[7] Before commencing legal action easyGroup's lawyers bombarded Easyart.com with threatening letters, despite having accepted £2,000 worth of advertising from the art company in its EasyInternet cafes not long after it launched. "This was a David and Goliath fight. It is a good day for smaller companies who stand up to bullying tactics from large corporations. We hope this gives hope to many other companies out there who are trading legitimately under the 'Easy' name and who have been threatened by this man", said Mr Matthews.[8][9]

In 2005, easyGroup threatened legal action against a Welsh company which had been trading as EasyMobile since 2003, two years before the launch of easyGroup's easyMobile business which is not currently running.[10] In 2006, easyGroup dropped action against London businessman Karl Kahn after it emerged that his EasyPizza business predated easyGroup's business of the same name by several years.[11]

In 2008, a restaurant in Northampton agreed to stop calling itself "easyCurry" after threats of legal action from easyGroup.[12] As of 2009, differences had emerged at easyJet concerning travel-associated "extras" such as hotel bookings under the "easyJethotels" brand, and car hire under "easyJetcarhire". EasyGroup contended that it licensed the "easyJet" brand primarily for airline use, and that using the brand for hotel and car hire interfered with other EasyGroup businesses.[13]

In 2011, the Edmonton-based company Eezy Drive received a letter from easyGroup's lawyer Clarke Willmott, asking the owner Zeeshan Haniffa to stop using the name of his driving school, Ezee Drive Driving School, accusing him of "intellectual property infringement" and giving him seven days to destroy £1,000-worth of signs, leaflets and posters using the name, and hand over website domain names within two weeks.[14][15] In 2012, a Northwich-based gym called Easy Exercise was challenged that it could not use the Easy name, with easyGroup citing "The easy name is synonymous with quality, value for money services and we have a duty to protect the public from its unauthorised use."[16]

In September 2018, easyGroup was taking legal action against Netflix over its comedy series Easy, claiming its use of the name breaches its European trademarks. Netflix said in a statement that "viewers can tell the difference between a show they watch and a plane they fly in".[17] In a ruling in 2021, EasyGroup Ltd v Easylife Ltd (formerly Easylife Group Ltd), and another [2021] EWHC 2150, Dr Jonathan Cornthwaite of the long-established legal firm Wedlake Bell said "This case was brought in attempt to prevent a retailing business called Easylife Ltd and its director from (among other things) using various brands incorporating the word 'easy'. However, the claimant not only lost its cases for trade mark infringement and passing off, but also suffered the revocation of various of its UK trade marks on the grounds of non-use."[18][19]

In February 2022, easyGroup filed a lawsuit against the charity shopping website easyfundraising for "brand theft".[20] In April 2022, Stelios Haji-Ioannou was described as a "deeply unimpressive witness" who gave answers "that were defensive to the point of implausibility" by a High Court judge who oversaw a trademark disagreement involving EASYOFFICE, owned by a company called Nuclei. The judge, Mrs Justice Bacon, found in favour of Nuclei and said four easyGroup trademarks should be revoked on the "grounds of lack of genuine use".[21]

In September 2024, a judgement in the High Court of Justice by The Honourable Mr Justice Fancourt ruled that Easyfundraising successfully defended against easyGroup's injunction to stop trading under 'easyfundraising',[22] stating "….the average consumer would be unlikely to be confused merely on account of use of the word “easy”, even if the services could be regarded as having some degree of similarity."

Subsidiaries and investments

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Current properties

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As of 2024, easyGroup lists over 200 easy branded business ventures and websites in a wide range of sectors,[23] including easyJet and easyBus.

Formerly owned companies

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Amongst the ventures formerly owned by easyGroup which are still in operation under new full or partial ownership are hotel chain easyHotel, financial intermediary services brand easyMoney and African low-cost airline Fastjet.

Defunct ventures

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Examples for former easyGroup brands and business ventures that since ceased operations for various reasons are easyInternetcafé, easyCinema, easyCoach, easyCruise (which ceased operations after it had been sold to Hellenic Seaways),[24] easyFoodstore[25] and easyPizza.

References

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  1. ^ "EASYGROUP LTD overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. 25 August 2000. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  2. ^ "Witness Statement of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou" (PDF). High Court of Justice Chancery Division. 16 March 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  3. ^ Brian Rogers, Nirmaylia Kumar (1 January 2000). "www.easyRentacar.com". IMD.
  4. ^ "EasyJet case turns spotlight on Stelios". Financial Times. 26 June 2010. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  5. ^ "EasyGroup Brand Manual" (PDF). EasyGroup. Smashing Magazine. June 2010. p. 12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  6. ^ Walker, Duncan (11 August 2004). "Can you 'own' a colour?". BBC News. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  7. ^ "How I Made It: Gyr King, founder of King & McGaw". The Sunday Times. 13 May 2012. Archived from the original on 29 May 2015. (subscription required)
  8. ^ "Easyart.com to face Stelios in 'easy' court action". The Register. 12 November 2002.
  9. ^ Gibson, Owen (9 May 2003). "EasyGroup drops action against Easyart.com". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  10. ^ "Posh Richemont latest to sue Stelios". The Register. 18 November 2005. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
  11. ^ "Hard cheese for Stelios in EasyPizza case". The Register. 20 June 2006. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
  12. ^ "Easy name curry house climbs down". BBC. 23 July 2008. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
  13. ^ Robertson, David (16 August 2008). "Stelios takes easyJet to court over branding". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 7 January 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  14. ^ "EasyJet firm accused of 'bullying' Edmonton driving instructor over Ezee Drive name". Enfield Independent. 21 September 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  15. ^ Osborne, Alistair (20 September 2011). "EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou 'bullying' driving instructor into closing 'Ezee' business". Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  16. ^ "Winnington company forced to rebrand after easyGroup High Court threat". Northwich Guardian. 7 March 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  17. ^ correspondent, Rebecca Smithers Consumer affairs (30 September 2018). "Netflix sued by easyJet founder in trademark dispute". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 March 2020. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  18. ^ "Ruling on validity and infringement of easyGroup trade marks (High Court)". Thomson Reuters. 2 August 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  19. ^ Cornthwaite, Jonathan (1 September 2021). "Suing for Infringement of a Descriptive Trademark Isn't Easy (Easygroup v Easylife)". Wedlake Bell. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  20. ^ Yeomans, Jo (20 February 2022). "EasyGroup's Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou targets Easyfundraising over 'brand theft'". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  21. ^ Farmer, Brian (13 April 2022). "Airline founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou 'deeply unimpressive witness' – judge". Evening Standard. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  22. ^ easyGroup Ltd v Easyfundraising Ltd & Ors [2024] EWHC 2323 (Ch), 11 September 2024, retrieved 12 September 2024
  23. ^ easy.com - Explore easy retrieved 5 May 2024
  24. ^ "EasyCruise Sold to Hellenic Seaways". Cruise Industry News. 18 August 2009. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  25. ^ Marius, Callum (20 November 2022). "Hidden easyJet rudder makes it look like a plane is hidden in Wembley". MyLondon. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
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