Delhi High Court Restrains Unauthorized Use Of 'Razorpay' Mark For Financial Scams, Orders Deletion Of Telegram & WhatsApp Accounts

The Delhi High Court has restrained various unknown entities from using the “Razorpay” trademark after the payment getaway service provider filed a suit accusing them of using the mark unauthorizedly by perpetuating fraud on the general public by running a financial scam on the pretext of providing jobs.

Justice Sanjeev Narula directed that the WhatsApp and Telegram channels or accounts operated by the perpetrators be blocked, observing that a prima facie case was made out in favour of Razorpay for grant of an ex-parte ad interim injunction.

The court directed the domain name registrars to block or suspend access to the domain names operated by unknown entities. It further directed WhatsApp to provide the basic subscriber information available with it relating to the accounts ordered to be blocked.

Justice Narula further directed Meta Platforms to remove or block Facebook pages as mentioned in the plaint and to disclose details of the holders of the pages.

The court also directed banks to freeze or suspend operations of the bank accounts used by the unknown entities. It further ordered the National Payments Corporation of India to suspend or disable the UPI IDs mentioned in the plaint.

Razorpay filed the suit against the unknown individuals (John Doe) alleging that it received multiple complaints against them from the general public. It was alleged that the defendants were falsely representing themselves as a recruiter of Razorpay and offering part-time job with them for extra income. As per the plaint, the scam was being operated on WhatsApp, Facebook and Telegram.

“The impugned domain names, Telegram channels, and WhatsApp accounts use the registered Razor marks without the Plaintiff's consent and have even emulated the make and design of Plaintiffs' website, which further accentuates the likelihood of confusion among the target public,” the court said.

Counsel for Plaintiffs: Ms. Sneha Jain, Advocate with Mr. Yatinder Garg, Mr. Sanidhya Maheshwari and Ms. Rimjhim Tiwari, Advocates

Counsel for Defendants: Ms. Anushka Sharda, Advocate with Ms. Madhav Khosla and Ms. Smriti Nair, Advocates for D-8, Ms. Nidhi Raman, CGSC with Mr. Zubin Singh, Advocate for Defendant Nos. 9 & 10

Title: RAZORPAY SOFTWARE PRIVATE LIMITED & ANR v. JOHN DOE & ORS.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 411

Click here to read order