14ymedio, Havana, 10 February 2024 — The Supreme Court of Spain condemned two companies in the city of Valencia – Gesinta Invest Company and La Casa del Tabaco – for marketing the F series of the Nicaraguan brand of cigars from Condega, which imitates the design of the Cuban Partagás. The cigar monopoly on the Island, the Habanos S.A. corporation, celebrated the “unfair competition” verdict.
The corporation had filed a lawsuit against both Valencian distributors in 2018 for the “almost identical presentation” to that of Partagás with which they sold the Condega cigars, which “blatantly infringed” upon Spain’s agreements with Havana. The ruling, which ratified a previous ruling of the Provincial Court of Valencia and was handed down at the end of January, illustrates the tension between Cuba and Nicaragua in the world of cigars.
Politically allied, both countries are fierce rivals when it comes to cigar production. However, the Island, which has the prestige of producing the best quality leaf, has lost ground among international consumers – especially those from the United States, who cannot legally buy Cuban cigars – and Nicaraguan tobacco seems of similar quality for a lower price.
Nicaragua has been able to take advantage not only of Cuba’s technical knowledge but also its fame and imagery
Nicaragua, where many producers from the Island emigrated after 1959, has been able to take advantage not only of Cuba’s technical knowledge but also its fame and imagery. At the core of the lawsuit in Valencia, which now prohibits Gesinta and La Casa del Tabaco from selling Condega cigars, is the similarity of colors in the rings of the Nicaraguan brand and those of the D series of Partagás.
Both rings are identical in almost everything except the name of the cigar: two golden bands below and above the name, also in gold. This ring has been “very characteristic” of Partagás since the 1930s, Habanos S.A. claims, and has contributed to the brand “always being in the top positions” on the lists of premium cigars.
This Thursday, the members of the Cigar Club of Madrid – one of the landmarks of Cuban cigars in Spain – received a communication about the Supreme Court’s ruling, and the Condegas were unambiguously qualified as mere Nicaraguan “copies” of Partagás.
“The Condega Serie F are cigars whose Central American origin has not
