Mamaearth’s parent company, Honasa Consumer, has filed a case in the Delhi High Court against Hindustan Unilever (HUL). They claim that an ad for HUL’s Lakmé Sun Expert sunscreen unfairly criticises products from their skincare brand, The Derma Co.
In its complaint, Honasa Consumer claimed that Lakmé’s campaign called “SPF Lie Detector Test” was unfair and made other products look bad, including one that looks a lot like a sunscreen from The Derma Co, a brand owned by Honasa.
Senior lawyer Amit Sibal, speaking for Honasa Consumer, explained the company’s side and asked the court to stop HUL from running ads that they say are false and damaging to their reputation.
The conflict is about Lakmé’s ad campaign, which says that many sunscreen brands that are mostly sold online lie about offering SPF 50 protection, when in reality, they only provide much less—sometimes as low as SPF 20. HUL said that Lakmé uses in-vivo SPF testing, which is a widely accepted method around the world, and has been doing this since 2015.
The argument between the two companies began on Monday, April 14. It started when Ghazal Alagh, co-founder of Honasa Consumer, shared a photo on social media. The photo showed an ad by HUL that questioned how effective sunscreens from newer, online-only brands are.
In another social media post on Tuesday, April 15, she said that HUL copied Honasa’s products, including shampoos, sunscreens, and face wash. She later deleted the post.
The HUL-owned brand responded on social media, saying it has been testing its sunscreens on people for the last 10 years.
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During the arguments on Wednesday, April 16, Honasa Consumer referred to past court cases. They said that while a company is allowed to make bold claims about its own products, the courts do not allow companies to speak badly about their competitors in ads.
