Fürst's window display claimed the only 'Original' Mozartkugel — Salzburg enjoined the ad

Two neighbouring confectioners in Salzburg's old town fight over who made the first Mozartkugel. Café-Konditorei Fürst has long advertised that Paul Fürst invented the praline in 1890 and sells the 'Original'; neighbour Confiserie Josef Holzermayr traces its tradition to the 1880s. In summer 2025 the historian Gerhard Ammerer found an 1881 advertisement for 'Salzburger Spezialität Mozartkugeln' by confectioner R. Baumann — Holzermayr's predecessor — and the quarrel went to court.

Fürst's advertising leaned on a clipping: a newspaper article about a 1996 Supreme Court (OGH) ruling, displayed in its shop window and on its website, presented as proof that only Fürst may sell the 'Original' Mozartkugel. But the 1996 ruling had actually said that advertising Mozartkugeln with the word 'Original' cannot be generally prohibited. The Salzburg regional court found the display a shortened and misleading representation, and prohibited it in June 2026 by interim injunction under the Unfair Competition Act.

The war had already struck Holzermayr's own advertising: in January 2026 it was banned from claiming 'nach dem Originalrezept von 1880' because the recipe is unknown, and switched to 'nach der Tradition von 1880'. On 23 June 2026 the court dismissed Holzermayr's bid to strip Fürst of the inventor title — the 1881 ads spoke of 'Chocoladen-Bonbons', not the modern praline. The main hearing is set for August 2026.