Personal care and cosmetics group Rituals has demanded €20 million from bankrupt peer The Body Shop for copyright infringement.

Curator Cedric de Breet has confirmed to RTLZ that Rituals put forward the demand, which follows on from a court case a year ago.

In that case, Dutch judges ordered The Body Shop to pay damages for using the word “rituals” in its Spa of the World product line.

The British company had used “relaxing ritual”, “revitalizing ritual”, “blissful ritual” and “firming ritual” to describe various products in its spa range since 2015, leading Rituals to allege trade mark infringement. 

The court ruled that the words ritual and rituals are often used to describe personal care products but that in the case of The Body Shop, the word was used frequently and with a capital letter. 

The British arm of The Body Shop went into administration a year ago, just three months after being taken over by private equity group Aurelius. The Dutch arm followed in November.

Other creditors have also submitted claims totalling €3.8 million, and the tax office and UWV benefits agency take priority. The remaining creditors will share the rest of any capital between them, based on the size of their claim.

Rituals, set up by a former Unilever manager in 2000, booked sales of €1.7 billion last year.