Prison sentences have been handed down in two separate cases for illegal trading in Chep pallets.
In a case heard by a Madrid court, a pallet recycler was sentenced to six months in jail for attempting to sell Chep equipment, despite receiving correspondence from the pallet and container pooling specialist warning that the distinctive blue pallets were its own. And in France, a man was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay Chep’s costs, after being found guilty of stealing 2,500 Chep pallets and selling them.
“These rulings reconfirm the illegality of these pallet pools that illegitimately use Chep proprietary assets,” said Giuseppe Sanna, senior vice-president, general counsel of Chep Europe. “Chep will continue to pursue, through the appropriate legal channels, the operators of these pools to protect Chep interests, as well as the interests of the whole supply chain across Europe
Within the European logistics supply chain, the illegal use of pooled pallets has been a recurring problem. Chep, through its logistics network, collects the pallets, inspects and repairs them if necessary, before they are made available once more for issue to customers. These pallets are never sold and only rented out, with Chep maintaining its property rights over the pallets. To ease identification, Chep pallets are painted blue and are marked with the corporate logo and stamped “Property of Chep”.
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