New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday asked ITC Ltd not to continue its advertising campaign with the “say not to concentrate”, for its juice brand BNatural, till 9 April.
The directive came based on a suit filed by PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt Ltd, the local unit of American food and beverage maker PepsiCo Inc. that sells juice under Tropicana brand.
On Friday, ITC published advertisements across print media, social media and hoardings saying: “We’re inviting Tropicana and Real to join us in abandoning concentrates.”.
It further added: “Will the competition join us, be there to see.” According to the advertisements, “this journey” starts from 9 April.
The court will hear the matter again on 9 April.
ITC, the Kolkata-based cigarette-to-juice makes, declined comment on the issue.
“In response to ITC’s BNatural media campaign, we took legal action against ITC in the Delhi high court. We are pleased to note that the Hon’ble High Court today directed ITC to suspend the advertising campaign, and remove all references to the Tropicana brand as well as #SayNoToConcentrate, as it is derogatory to the category of concentrate juices. ITC has been asked to take steps for removal of their campaign from all hoardings, electronic media and print media,” Deepika Warrier, vice president- Nutrition, PepsiCo India, said in a statement.
“The High Court today directed ITC to suspend the advertising campaign, and remove all references to the Tropicana brand as well as #SayNoToConcentrate. ITC has been asked not to print the said campaign till April 9 when matter will be hears again,” said Dheeraj Nair, Partner, J Sagar Associates.
ITC has been vocal about not using concentrates to produce its juice BNatural since the time it relaunched the brand that it acquired in 2015.
Dabur, the maker of Real juice, has stayed away from the issue.