Delhi High Court Orders E-Commerce Platforms to Delist Products Infringing on Reliance, Jio Trademarks

The Delhi High Court has ordered Amazon, Flipkart, Indiamart and various other e-commerce services in the country to take down listings for various fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) products from their platforms. In a dynamic injuction passed last week, the High Court said that the companies infringing on Reliance's trademarks could not use the company's brand names or similar designs that would allow their goods to be passed off as products manufactured by Reliance. They have also been directed to reveal the postal addresses, phone number, email addresses, bank account details and phone numbers of the brands that were selling the fraudulent goods on these platforms.

Delhi High Court Grants Ad-Interim Injunction to Reliance

In an order published on July 10 (via Bar and Bench), Justice Saurabh Banerjee ordered Flipkart, Amazon, Indiamart, Meesho, Snapdeal, and other platforms to take down several listings of fraudulent products from 21 sellers that infringed on Reliance and Jio's trademarks. The sellers have also been restrained from manufacturing, selling, and marketing these products using the company's names or trademarks.

The company had approached the high court stating that various listings for FMCG goods were found on these services by third parties, who were using Reliance and Jio trademarks without authorisation. These products were being sold by unknown sellers operating under fictitious names and identities.

The Court referred to images of the infringing products submitted by Reliance and the company's trademarks. It held that the design and presentation used by the sellers on these platforms imitated the company's trademarks and this could confuse customers, making them associate the products with Reliance and Jio. 

In addition to taking down the listings for these products, the Court also directed these e-commerce platforms to submit details of all the 21 sellers guilty of infringing the company's trademarks. These include their postal and email addresses, phone numbers, 

The Delhi High Court will hear the main suit (Reliance Industries Limited v Pawan Kumar Gupta and Others) on November 13. In the meanwhile, the e-commerce platforms were granted four weeks to file their replies with the details on the fraudulent sellers, and an additional two weeks after that to file a rejoinder, if any.