Ferrari Wins EU Court Case Against Mansory For Copying The FXX K With The 4XX Siracusa

Ferrari has a reputation of not letting anyone mess with its design legacy and heritage, and that is exactly what they did with the case of Mansory. The Italian brand took the German tuner to the courts claiming it copied the design of the Ferrari FXX K to create the bodykit of the Mansory 4XX Siracusa which is based on the 488 GTB.

It seems that Ferrari was not happy at all with Mansory copying the design of their $2.6 million track-only hypercar and offering a tuning kit that their base $250k mid-engined model look like their flagship.

Initially, Ferrari SpA sued Mansory Design & Holding GmbH and WH at the Bundesgerichtshof court in Germany for “violating rights to unregistered designs”. The case ended up in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg which issued a statement on October 28. As reported by Reuters, Europe’s top court agreed with Ferrari’s arguments that it owns the design right to the appearance of the track-only FXX K and recognized the copyright infringement in the case of Mansory’s tuning kit.

Read Also: $18,550 Bodykit Makes The McLaren 720S Look Like A Senna GTR

The design features in question were the V-shaped section of the bonnet and the front bumper. As you can see from the pictures, the bodykit is indeed trying to imitate the FXX K with a very similar shape for the dual bumper intakes, the F1-inspired base in the middle, the carbon fiber splitter, and the inlets on the black-colored section of the bonnet.

The court’s opinion document on the C-123/20 – Ferrari case reads: “Making available to the public of the full design of a product, such as the appearance of a vehicle, also entails the making available to the public of the design of a part of that product, such as the appearance of certain elements of the bodywork of that vehicle, provided that the latter design is clearly identifiable at the time when that design is made available”. It also recognizes that “a visible section of a product, defined by particular lines, contours, colors, shape or texture, constitutes the ‘appearance of… a part of a product’, within the meaning of that provision, which may be protected as a Community design”.

The truth is that Mansory is not the only company that is offering tuning kits inspired by more expensive models of a supercar manufacturer. Recently, DarwinPRO Aerodynamics presented a bodykit for the McLaren 720S imitating the looks of the McLaren Senna.

We don’t know whether Mansory will have to withdraw the 4XX Siracusa from the market or if it will be forced to pay royalties to Ferrari, but this case sends a strong message to tuning companies concerning the design of their bodykits.