Delhi High Court Restrains Alpino Health Foods From Publishing Advertisements 'Disparaging' Oats

The Delhi High Court has recently restrained Alpino Health Foods Private Limited, a Bengaluru-based brand, from publishing or sharing its advertisements disparaging “Oats” as a category of foods, either on social media or otherwise.

Justice Mini Pushkarna passed the ex parte ad interim injunction order in favour of Marico Limited in its suit against Alpino, a brand which has actress Shilpa Shetty as the brand ambassador and investor.

Marico was aggrieved by Alpino's marketing via advertisements allegedly targeting oats as a category of food. It was Marico's case that it launched “Saffola Oats” and rolled oats and the advertisements were disparaging to oats.

The suit alleged that Alpino was trying to establish its product against regular rolled oats and was running a “brazen and bizarre advertisement campaign” against the entire oats category by defaming and disparaging the natural characteristic of oats to 'choona'. It was also alleged that Alpino's advertisements called rolled oats “lifeless, boring and impossible to finish.”

It was submitted that the intent and storyline of the impugned advertisements was to maliciously slander, denigrate, and disparage Oats and to spread misinformation and paranoia among the consumers about oats by saying that they are bad, poisonous and unsuitable for human consumption.

In the interim order passed on October 29, the Court issued a summons in the suit and said that Marico was able to demonstrate a prima facie case in its favour for the grant of ad interim injunction.

“In view of the above circumstances, the plaintiff has demonstrated a prima facie case for grant of injunction and in case no ex-parte ad-interim injunction is granted, the plaintiff will suffer an irreparable loss. Further, the balance of convenience also lies in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendant,” it ordered.

The matter will now be heard on March 19.

Counsel for Plaintiff: Mr. Chander M. Lall, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Ankur Sangal, Ms. Pragya Mishra, Mr. Raghu Vinayak Sinha, Mr. Shaurya Pandey and Ms. Ananya Mehan, Advocates

Title: MARICO LIMITED v. ALPINO HEALTH FOODS PRIVATE LIMITED

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 1203

Click here to read order