HUL agrees to take down Lakme's sunscreen ad in dispute with Mamaearth

Fast-moving consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it will take down its Lakmé sunscreen advertisement campaign which disparaged products sold by Honasa Consumer's skincare brand, The Derma Co.

 

The company said it would also introduce key modifications to address Honasa's concerns, remove the term ‘online bestseller’ and alter the packaging design from orange to yellow in the advertisement to avoid confusion with The Derma Co’s product.

 

The FMCG major told Justice Amit Bansal that it will remove online posts within 24 hours and hoardings within 48 hours. The court took note of this and posted the matter for Monday to check the status of the case.

 

Mamaearth's parent company, Honasa Consumer, had moved the Delhi High Court against HUL, alleging that a Lakmé Sun Expert sunscreen advertisement disparages products sold by the former’s skincare brand, The Derma Co.

 

In its plea, Honasa Consumer alleged that the Lakmé campaign titled ‘SPF Lie Detector Test’ unfairly undermined and disparaged competing products, including one that closely resembles a sunscreen from The Derma Co. The dispute is over Lakmé's advertisement campaign, which claims that many digital-first sunscreen brands in the market falsely claim sun protection factor (SPF) 50 protection but provide much lower protection, sometimes as low as SPF 20.

 

HUL’s spokesperson said that the company will continue to air the advertisements with modifications. “The Bombay High Court will hear the matter on Tuesday. It had suggested that both parties could come to an agreement before it comes out with an order. We agreed to make a few modifications to our campaign and they [Honasa Consumer] agreed to remove all their objectionable and disparaging posts.”

 

HUL had moved the Bombay High Court, alleging that Honasa Consumer disparaged its Lakmé brand in its sunscreen advertisement.

 

HUL said Lakmé follows in-vivo SPF testing, a globally recognised method, and has done so since 2015.

 

Senior advocate Amit Sibal, appearing for Honasa Consumer, told the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that the campaign was targeting digital-first sunscreen brands without naming them directly. The company had sought either removal or modification of the advertisement.

 

The dispute between the two companies started on Monday, when Honasa Consumer co-founder Ghazal Alagh posted a picture of HUL's advertising billboard, which downplays the efficacy claims of sunscreen products launched by new-age, online-first brands, on social media. In another social media post on Tuesday, she claimed that HUL copied Honasa's products across categories such as shampoos, sunscreens, and face wash. Later, she deleted that post.

 

In a statement released later in the day, HUL said that it respected the High Court’s decision to “continue with our Sun Superiority Campaign with some modifications”.

 

“This demonstrates the pivotal need for raising awareness around SPF efficacy, transparency, and accountability in the sun care category, keeping consumer interest and safety at the core,” HUL said in a statement.