Mamaearth moves Delhi HC against HUL over Lakme's sunscreen advertisement

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

Mamaearth's parent company Honasa Consumer has moved the Delhi High Court against Hindustan Unilever Limited (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, a brand under Honasa. 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 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 that the campaign was targeting digital-first sunscreen brands without naming them directly. The company has sought either removal or modification of the advertisement. Honasa Consumer also sought the Delhi court’s intervention in stopping Hindustan Unilever from running such advertisements in newspapers, billboards or social media until the next hearing, but this prayer was not accepted.

 

A single-judge bench of Justice Amit Bansal said that "on the face of it" the advertisements put out by Hindustan Unilever were disparaging in nature but allowed it to present its arguments on Thursday.

 

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.

 

During the arguments on Wednesday, Honasa Consumer also cited legal precedents, saying that while a company can exaggerate the claims of its own products, courts have disallowed the disparaging of rivals through advertisements.