MERLIN SUES LONDON ATTRACTION

Merlin Entertainments has taken the unprecedented step of starting legal action against a new London attraction which it believes is an attempt to copy its own London Dungeon attraction.

Merlin believes that the London Bridge Experience is transparently designed to mirror the London Dungeon’s concept and marketing positioning. Its location, just yards from the London Dungeon, compounded by its copycat marketing literature and promotional activity, are, Merlin feels, deliberately intended to confuse visitors and to unlawfully trade off the high quality, goodwill and reputation of Merlin’s own long established attraction.

The legal action is also aimed at putting a stop to misleading and deceptive statements to, and interference with, visitors in the London Dungeon queue intended to divert them away from the Dungeon to the inferior attraction.

Commenting, David Sharpe, Merlin’s Divisional Director, London, said: “Merlin has invested massive resources in creating the Dungeon concept over many years, and has built an enviable reputation for the brand, particularly amongst teens - a positioning which is quite unique globally.

We also invest significant resources to continually update the London Dungeon, to ensure both its quality and that it delivers very high levels of customer satisfaction. We will therefore fiercely protect the goodwill in the London Dungeon brand, particularly from such blatantly parasitic behaviour.”

While the historical period covered by the London Bridge Experience is in some respects different to that covered by the London Dungeon, it looks to mirror the Dungeon concept in practically every other way – right down to its marketing and promotional materials. Merlin has considerable evidence that some visitors have been confused into thinking that the two attractions are related or even the same, something which is potentially extremely damaging to the London Dungeon brand, given the materially different quality of the two attractions.

This effect could be compounded over coming weeks by the success of Merlin’s overseas marketing activity, and the consequent number of tourists wishing to visit the London Dungeon, for whom the likelihood of confusion is even greater.

Concluding Sharpe said: “While we believe in fair competition, the type of illegal activity we have seen from the London Bridge Experience is totally unacceptable, and is not something we will tolerate. Our proposal for a consensual resolution having been rejected, we have no alternative but to put a stop to this behaviour through formal legal channels in order to protect the London Dungeon brand.”

THE LONDON BRIDGE EXPERIENCE HITS BACK IN MERLIN LEGAL CASE

“The owners of ‘London’s scariest attraction’ – The London Bridge Experience – are calling on public support to fight back against leisure giants Merlin Entertainments.

The £2 million London Bridge Experience, built using Hollywood-style special effects, which opened in February this year, has so far attracted 40,000 visitors and been branded ‘London’s scariest attraction’ by www.hauntedattractions.co.uk

But Merlin Entertainments who own the London Dungeon has now accused the family-run London Bridge Experience owners Danny and Lee Scriven of acting illegally by copying the attraction and driving away trade.

Merlin launched the legal case after the owners of the London Bridge Experience refused to comply with original conditions laid down by Merlin including not promoting the attraction within 200 metres of the London Dungeon – which would have effectively banned them from their own premises.

Owner Danny Scriven, who along with his brother Lee, have invested their life savings in opening of the attraction, said: “We are very disappointed to find ourselves at the mercy of the Merlin Group. Ever since we opened they have made repeated demands to us to restrict our activities because the London Bridge Experience is located close to their London Dungeon attraction. We have a great haunted attraction ourselves and we will fight on.”

“Had we agreed to Merlin’s original conditions which included not doing any promotions within 200 metres of the London Dungeon we would not have even been able to go into our own attraction, it is ludicrous! We would love the public to support us in our fight.”

Since April 2008 Merlin, which claims to be the number one provider in Europe and the second largest provider of visitor attractions worldwide after Disney, has attempted to restrict the London Bridge Experience from promoting its business on and around Tooley Street.

It has also sought to stop the London Bridge Experience from using words or pictures or graphical representations typical of scare attractions such as ghosts, ghouls and the effect of blood dripping from wording, or from using costumed actors interacting with visitors or realistic props of decapitated heads.

Merlin also demanded that the London Bridge Experience should not take part in promotions open to the public when Merlin takes part – such as 2for1 rail vouchers.

The London Bridge Experience celebrates the 2000 year history of the world’s most famous bridge in one part of the attraction, with the London Tombs as the second part in the vaults of the bridge, where during the building work a 14th century plague pit was discovered.

Danny and Lee Scriven grew up less than a mile from London Bridge and now live in Kent. The brothers realised their dream of opening their own scare attraction after visiting scare venues in the US.