Honasa Consumer Ltd, the parent company of Mamaearth, has sued FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) over an advertisement for Lakme Sun Expert sunscreen, claiming that it is disparaging and misleading, a report by CNBC TV18 stated.
In a lawsuit filed in the Delhi High Court, Honasa Consumer alleged that Lakme campaign titled “SPF Lie Detector Test” unfairly undermines competing products, including one that closely resembles a sunscreen from The Derma Co, a brand under Honasa.
After a preliminary hearing, the Delhi HC sought response from HUL and said that the ad appeared to be disparaging “on the face of it”.
According to the report, Honasa is seeking takedown of the Lakme ad. The matter is expected to be heard next on April 17 when both the parties will present their arguments.
Recently, Lakme launched an ad campaign for its Sun Expert SPF 50 sunscreen. The ad allegedly claimed that many digital-first sunscreen brands falsely advertise SPF 50 protection but provide much lower protection, sometimes as low as SPF 20. For its testimony, however, the Lakme ad maintained that it uses in-vivo testing (testing on humans), which is considered a global gold standard for verifying sunscreen effectiveness.