Will remove reference to other sunscreen from ads: Hindustan Unilever to Delhi High Court

New Delhi/Mumbai: In response to a suit filed by Honasa Consumer Ltd's sunscreen brand The Derma Co, Hindustan Unilever Ltd assured the Delhi High Court on Thursday it will remove alleged disparaging references to a competitor from the ads of sunscreen products of HUL subsidiary Lakme.

In a related development, during the hearing of a separate suit filed by HUL against The Derma Co, both sides said they had agreed to remove their respective contentious advertisements as an interim arrangement.

Justice Amit Bansal of the Delhi High Court asked HUL to ensure the ads and hoardings in the present form were discontinued in a time-bound manner.

"You discontinue the ad from today. You show that it is in the spirit of settlement. You can't prolong the removal.. Online (ads) can go within 24 hours," the judge told the HUL's counsel.

Honasa moved the high court against HUL's campaign alleging that while making a reference to the former's "online bestseller" product the defendant claimed it did not offer SPF (sun protection factor) 50.

"You cannot call my product bad on the basis of a one-page executive summary (of a test report) which is inherently contentious.. To say my product is actually SPF 20 and I am misrepresenting to the public every day (is not acceptable)," said the Honasa counsel.

After the court asked if the advertisements could be taken down, the defendant said it would remove the contentious references.

In view of the settlement, the parties also agreed to not press at this stage the lawsuit filed by HUL in the Bombay High Court.

The Delhi high court would hear the case on April 21 after the HUL counsel said they would file an affidavit regarding the proposed changes.

HUL had denied making any disparaging reference to The Derma Co, and said it had laboratory reports to substantiate its claims.

The company, in a statement, said it respected the outcome of the proceedings.

At the Bombay High Court, as HUL's suit came up for hearing before Justice Arif Doctor, both sides said they had agreed, as an interim arrangement, to take down their advertisements within 24 hours and hoardings within 48 hours, said HUL lawyer Hiren Kamod.

HUL contended in its suit that a recent Derma Co billboard took a direct aim at Lakme, and demanded Rs 105 crore in damages from Honasa.

"The said advertisements seek to falsely portray to the consumers and the public at large that Lakme sunscreen products have not, until recently, been tested for SPF efficacy using standard methods," the suit said.

The advertisement claimed the earlier methods adopted by Lakme to certify its products were faulty, sub-standard and inaccurate, it said.

"Such advertisements falsely claim that Derma co sunscreen brand is leading the way, thereby implying that the Lakme Sun Expert range of products until recently have not been safe for the consumers," it added.

The suit in the Bombay High Court will be next heard on April 22.