WIPO DEU2026-0025 · decided 12 August 2026
European Refreshments Unlimited Company v. Radoslav Velkov, Tilt Pro EOOD
The parties
- Complainant
- European Refreshments Unlimited Company
- Respondent
- Radoslav Velkov, Tilt Pro EOOD
What did the panel find on each element?
| Element | Finding |
|---|---|
| Identical or confusingly similar to a protected name | The panel found drpepper-eu.eu confusingly similar to the DR PEPPER trademark, because the trademark is fully incorporated and the added term "-eu" does not prevent that finding. |
| Registered without rights or legitimate interest | The panel found no rights or legitimate interest, because the holder filed no formal response and the trademark plus "eu" carried a risk of implied affiliation with European Refreshments. |
| Or registered or used in bad faith | The panel found registration and use in bad faith, because the DR PEPPER rights predated the domain by at least 20 years and the website falsely presented itself as "Dr Pepper Europe". |
Why does European Refreshments matter for a complaint today?
European Refreshments Unlimited Company is an Irish indirect subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company. It owns Irish trademarks for DR PEPPER registered in 2004. The domain drpepper-eu.eu was registered on May 12, 2025 and used for an online shop that called itself "Dr Pepper Europe". The panel recorded that the holder, Radoslav Velkov, is the manager of Tilt Pro Food EOOD, a Bulgarian food distribution company. The holder asked for the case to run in Bulgarian, the language of the registration agreement. An earlier WIPO language ruling, DEUL2026-0003, had already set English, and the panel kept it. The holder filed no response. The panel, Ingrīda Kariņa-Bērziņa, found no legitimate interest and also found bad faith in both registration and use. European Refreshments asked for revocation, and the panel ordered it on August 12, 2026. For a business owner, two points follow. First, a .eu complaint can end with the domain cancelled instead of handed over, if that is the remedy you request. Second, the .eu test needs only one of no legitimate interest or bad faith, where the UDRP needs both. On facts this plain, the panel found both anyway.
Who decided the case?
A single panelist, Ingrīda Kariņa-Bērziņa, decided the case on 12 August 2026.
Read the decision
The full text is published by the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. We summarise it here; the decision itself is the authority.
Summarised by Gergana Dimitrova. Checked against the published decision on 23 October 2026.
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