The Supreme Court yesterday directed Tefal India Household Appliances to clarify in its advertisements and packaging that its lifetime guarantee was only for the lifetime of the products and it covered only manufacturing defects.
A division bench consisting of Justice S C Sen and Justice S Saghir Ahmad passed the order on an appeal filed by the company against the interim injunction by the Monopolies & Restrictive Trade Practices Commission.
Senior counsel Soli Sorabjee argued for the company, which makes non-stick cookware in collaboration with a French company, that it was a matter of common sense that lifetime guarantee meant only for the life of the product. It could not be for the lifetime of the buyer.
The MRTP Commission, on a petition by a civil rights organisation, passed an order on surmises and hypothetical considerations, counsel said.
The guarantee card made it clear that the guarantee was only for one year and for manufacturing defects.
There was no question of misleading any consumer. Moreover, no specific consumer has approached the commission.
On the other hand, counsel for the complainant Arun Jaitley argued that the companys thrust in its sales campaign was that the cookware was guaranteed for a life time. If the coating comes out after one and half years, the one-year guarantee would be of no use.
As far as manufacturing defects are concerned, it is already an implied condition in all sale of goods, counsel said.
In the end, the company agreed to change the words in the guarantee to explain the controversial clauses within one month. The court thus set aside the commissions order to that extent.