New Delhi: Multi national FMCG giant Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd and Baba Ramdev owned desi FMCG brand Patanjali are on loggerheads over the product similarity issue related to a Toilet Cleaner.
Reckitt Benckiser has approached the Delhi High Court against Patanjali’s Green Flush Toilet Cleaner for the latter’s deceptive similarities with Reckitt Benckiser’s product Harpic. The Court has posted the matter to next heard on 11th January 2018.
Reckitt Benckiser, which is the market leader in toilet cleaner segment with 80% market share, argued that Patanjali, which is a relatively new company, had not only copied the pattern and shape of the Harpic bottle, but had also copied its labelling and usage instructions.
Reckitt Benckiser raised objections against Patanjali’s advertisement on the ground that it was “mocking” Harpic’s advertisement in which a celebrity walks into the house of a person to inspect the toilet.
Reckitt Benckiser further asserted that Patanjali’s Green Flush toilet cleaner’s advertisement is misleading, as it is not an “organic product” as it claims to be. The advertisement shows one product as having “zero HCL” (hydrochloric acid) and the other as having “low HCL”.
