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Informist, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued a contempt notice to RSPL Ltd. on a petition by Hindustan Unilever Ltd. alleging that the former had not followed the court's June order regarding its commercial advertisements for Ghadi detergent powder. The high court noted the statement from RSPL that they would remove the alleged disparaging advertisement till the next court hearing date in September. 

 

Despite the court's June order asking RSPL to make changes to its Ghadi detergent advertisement, the company issued two more advertisements on similar lines and disobeyed and violated the court's ruling, said Hindustan Unilever. Consequently, Hindustan Unilever filed an application to seek contempt proceedings against RSPL.

 

On Jun. 20, the high court had asked RSPL to make changes to its commercial advertisements for Ghadi detergent powder after considering a permanent injunction suit filed by Hindustan Unilever. The petitioner had alleged that RSPL through its commercial advertisements had disparaged HUL's Surf Excel detergent powder. 

 

Justice Prathiba Singh, in a June ruling, had said that she was of the prima facie opinion that from a layman's view, the product which RSPL was comparing to could mean Surf Excel of Hindustan Unilever. Justice Singh said that courts had earlier ruled that the derogatory remarks were not allowed by a party against its competitors while promoting their products. 

 

In the advertisement, two women are seen buying two different detergents. While one picks a blue detergent powder, named XL-Blue written on it, the other woman buys Ghadi detergent. The shopkeeper refers to the blue detergent powder and says it only speaks highly of itself but doesn't wash properly, adding that the detergent powder is fraudulent. He further says that Ghadi detergent washes clothes well and its cost and foam were good ('iske jhag ache hai, daam ache hai'), which was allegedly disparaging Surf Excel's campaign of 'daag ache hai'.  

 

The high court had asked RSPL to remove these lines in the advertisement. Further, the high court had issued summons to RSPL on the suit filed by HUL. 

 

HUL had argued that RSPL's advertisements were targeting Surf Excel and disparaging its products by using inappropriate language. RSPL has used light blue colour for its advertisement, with XL- Blue written on it, which was a reference to Surf Excel, the petitioner said. Contesting these claims, RSPL argued that the petitioner did not have a monopoly on the word Excel or XL and there were various other blue packaged detergent powders in the market.

 

At 1244 IST, shares of Hindustan Unilever traded flat at INR 2,536.90 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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