Danish retailer Normal reaches settlement in ‘fake products’ case, party leader pulls out nicotine pouch in interview with youth group, and other news from Denmark on Tuesday.
Danish retailer Normal reaches settlement in ‘counterfeit products’ case
The Danish retailer Normal has reached a settlement with the US beauty giant Victoria’s Secret, which earlier this year took it to court accusing it of selling counterfeit perfumes.
The case has been withdrawn after the two sides reached a settlement, the press contact judge of the Maritime and Commercial Court in Copenhagen told DR in an email.
“The parties have concluded the case themselves by means of a settlement, and therefore no decision will be made here,” they said.
According to court documents, representatives from Victoria’s Secret sampled a range of perfumes from Normal in stores in Copenhagen and Aarhus on September 26th last year after becoming suspicious that foul play was taking place at Normal.
“The perfumes purchased in Normal’s Danish stores have subsequently been investigated by Victoria’s Secret, and such an investigation has shown that not only illegally parallel-imported goods are sold via Normal’s Danish stores, but also counterfeit (non-original) products are sold,” Victoria’s Secret’s lawyer wrote before the trial.
In total, Victoria’s Secret had, the company said, identified 17 products sold at Normal that were counterfeit. It demanded that Normal be banned from selling and marketing the products throughout the EU.
Danish vocabulary: a secret settlement – a secret settlement
Six out of ten do not believe in reintroducing Great Prayer Day
Six out of ten voters in Denmark said they did not believe that Great Prayer Day will be reintroduced as a public holiday in 2030, according to a poll by Voxmeter for Ritzau.
This is despite assurances from Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and the pledge included in the government programme.
According to a poll by Voxmeter for Ritzau, less than half of respondents said they wanted the public holiday back at all, with three out of ten saying they did not want the holiday reinstated, and the rest answering “don’t know”.
In its programme, the government says that the reintroduction of the public holiday is conditional on finding the increase in employment that the abolition of the public holiday in 2023 resulted in.
But the four-leaf clover government, consisting of the Social Democrats, the Green Left Party, the Moderates and the Social Liberal Party, have stressed that the day off will become a reality.
Danish vocabulary: reintroduction – reintroduction
Green Left leadership ‘split on adviser case’
The national leadership of the Green Left party were divided on their responses to the decision to hire Thomas Nystrøm as a special adviser, despite his admission of inappropriate sexual behavior in 2020.
“There have been different views on this matter in the Green Left party,” said the party’s political spokesperson Sigurd Agersnap. “You have also been able to read that in the press, and it is also reflected in SF’s national leadership.”
Party leader Pia Olsen Dyhr left the meeting without commenting on why she had personally hired the adviser, who resigned on Saturday after two days.
Criticism of the hiring decision has come in particular from Lotte Kofoed, a Green Left councilor in Frederiksberg, who says she was sexually assaulted by Nystrøm in 2020.
She wrote on Wednesday in a post on X that Pia Olsen Dyhr had, by hiring the adviser, subjected Kofoed to psychological pressure and made her life “hell”.
Thomas Nystrøm acknowledged in a post on Facebook on Friday that he had behaved “completely unacceptable” on several occasions.
He himself does not remember the episode with Lotte Kofoed, but has “no reason to believe” that it is not true.
Danish vocabulary: different views – differing views
Liberal Alliance leader pulls out nicotine pouch in interview with youth leader
Alex Vanoplagh, chairman of the Liberal Alliance, has apologized after he was caught on video removing a nicotine pouch in an interview with a group from a youth council at the Folkemødet political festival.
“I use nicotine pouches, and I’m not proud of that. That’s why I always advise young people against starting it when I’m asked about it,” he told Danish public broadcaster DR when the video recording was shown to him.
Jesper Andreasen, associate professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Copenhagen, told DR that nicotine pouches had particularly serious impacts on the developing brains of young people.
“It can really wreak havoc on a developing brain, and you just shouldn’t do it,” he said. “It changes the brain’s reward system so that it is shaped to seek drugs. And it will stay with you for the rest of your life because the brain has been conditioned to be drug-seeking.”
“It means that you can become addicted to other things later in life. It’s not just nicotine, but also alcohol, cocaine or opioids. It can be a gateway to other drugs,” Andreasen continued. “He could have easily waited two minutes until the interview was over. I think it’s an unfortunate signal to send to young people.”
Danish vocabulary: the brain’s reward system – the brain’s reward system
