A Munich court has banned sales of the Shuanghuan CEO SUV into Germany, ruling that it infringes BMW’s design rights.

BMW claimed the CEO resembles its own X5 model, and began legal proceedings last September against German importer China Automobile Deutschland.

The company has denied the accusation.

Germany was one of nine countries in which European importer Martin Motors, based in Italy, had begun preparing to sell the CEO.

As well as Germany and Italy, the company had established distribution networks in France, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

It has yet to appoint a UK distributor.

Last year, Shuanghuan also received a threat of legal action from Mercedes-Benz, which claimed its two seater Noble city car is very similar to the Smart ForTwo.