Delhi High Court Orders Centre To Permanently Block Websites Defrauding People On Pretext Of Recruitments At Croma

The Delhi High Court has directed the Union Government to permanently block access to three websites which were defrauding people by taking money under the pretext of recruiting them at Tata-owned Croma, the electronics retail store chain.

Justice Sanjeev Narula also ordered permanent suspension and disabling of UPI IDs and mobile numbers in respect of the websites.

The court granted permanent injunction in favour of Infiniti Retail Limited, the owner of the retail stores. Infiniti Retail is a subsidiary of the Tata Group.

The suit was filed against the three websites “www.coma-share.com”, “www.croma-2.com” and “www.croma-1.com” seeking to restrain them from infringing its registered trademark and copyright in “CROMA”.”

It was Croma's case that the defendants sent messages to unsuspecting consumers through WhatsApp offering jobs at Croma and were made to transfer money to bank accounts/ UPI IDs.

It was also alleged that the victims had lost as much as Rs 1,65,000 to the fraud.

“Given the Plaintiff's standing in the market as evidenced by their annual revenue and promotional figures as well as the well-known status of the CROMA marks, the Court is of the opinion that impugned activities are causing irreparable loss to their goodwill and reputation. Thus, they are entitled to a permanent injunction as sought,” the court said.

Justice Narula added that the persons operating the impugned websites were using CROMA mark to create a misperception of association with Croma brand and were soliciting personal information and money from the consumers.

The court said that the persons used to approach an unsuspecting consumer with a lucrative job offer, requiring them to purchase goods from the impugned websites with a promise to return the amount with an added component of commission.

“As the impugned domain names wholly incorporate Plaintiff's “CROMA” mark, the public, under the mistaken belief that they are procuring a job at the Plaintiff-company, fall prey to Defendants No. 1 to 4's ploy,” the court said.

On December 05, 2022, the court had passed interim injunction order in favour of Croma and had ordered suspension of infringing websites.

Noting that the defendants operating the websites did not file any defence to contest the suit, the court said:

“In the opinion of the Court, no purpose would be served by directing Plaintiff to lead ex-parte evidence as the pleadings and accompanying documents prove that the said Defendants are misuing the Plaintiff's CROMA marks,3 entitling Plaintiff to protection.

Title: INFINITI RETAIL LIMITED vs M/S CROMA -SHARE & ORS

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 89

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