Delhi High Court rules in favour of Dabur in Emami Chyawanprash ad case

MUMBAI: Dabur has received an injunction in its favour from the Delhi High Court, which stopped the Kolkata-based Emami from airing a commercial for its chyawanprash brand that allegedly disparaged Dabur’s brand.

The court has also directed Emami to remove the ad from Google-owned video sharing website YouTube. Last year, Emami ran an ad disparaging Dabur Chyawanprash, saying the rival product had half its content as sugar.

"The court is of the prima facie view that the impugned advertisements of the defendant are misleading, unfair, deceptive and appear to have been created with the dishonest intention to disparage the plaintiff's product,” said Justice JR Midha in his order copy.

“We have gone into appeal, and wouldn’t like to comment any further as the matter is sub-judice,” said an Emami spokesperson. In the chyawanprash segment, Dabur is by far the market leader with over 58% share followed by Baidyanath and Patanjali. Emami has less than 7% share.

A year ago, Dabur had approached the Advertising Standard Council of India, the apex advertising regulator, which passed an order in favour of Dabur. However, Emami continued to run the ad this year following which Dabur moved the Delhi High Court in August 2018.

The court said the defendant was not comparing its sugar-free product with the plaintiff's sugar-free product, but instead comparing its sugar-free product with the plaintiff's product having sugar, which are not comparable.