The outdoor and print ads - which featured the strapline dontleaveituntilthelastminute.com - were the centrepiece of the group's key summer marketing campaign.
Lastminute.com issued a statement last week confirming the brand had filed for damages, and Lastminute.com's group managing director and chief marketing officer, Simon Thompson, said Virgin Holidays had agreed to remove the ads 'within seven days'.
Lastminute.com's group managing director and chief marketing officer, Simon Thompson, added: `We are delighted Virgin has taken the right decision to remove their campaign in the next seven days. As a company, we will always be a consumer champion; any confusion in the consumer's mind is not acceptable. We are still pursuing legal action against Virgin for substantial damages. Like Virgin, we believe in strongly defending our brand perception.'
However, Virgin Holidays marketing director Andrew Shelton denies the brand has pulled the campaign after protests from Lastminute.com, claiming it was always due to finish on 14 July.
'The early booking campaign continues to run without interruption, despite lastminute.com's attempts to curtail it,' said Shelton. 'As we had always planned, the campaign is due to end on July 14. As we have no further requirement for the URL after our campaign has finished, we have offered to allow lastminute.com to use it if they wish. Perhaps they can use it to continue to promote the benefits of early booking. Something, as our campaign highlighted, is information of great benefit to the consumer.'
.jpg)
.jpg)