Delhi High Court restrains Shopclues from selling counterfeit L’Oréal products

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Nov 19, 2018

L’Oréal India has won a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against the e-commerce marketplace Shopclues.com for selling counterfeit products. The Delhi High Court also restrained Shopclues.com from dealing in L’Oréal products.
 

Shopclues has also been asked to furnish complete details of all its sellers and verify the authenticity of products before uploading them for sale on their platform.
 
L’Oréal filed a case against Shopclues in 2014 for selling counterfeit products under its brand name. The company is now hopeful that this judgement will help its fight against online counterfeiting.

The court observed that e-commerce websites and online marketplaces have to operate with caution if they wish to enjoy the immunity provided to intermediaries, said L’Oréal India in a statement.
 
 "The court also held that Shopclues.com was disqualified for the exemption under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 as the website’s role was more than that of an intermediary," added the statement.
 
Commenting on the judgement, Amit Jain, managing director of L’Oréal India, “Counterfeits are a serious issue faced by the beauty industry in India across online and offline platforms. This verdict will help us fortify our fight against online counterfeiting rampant on such marketplaces. We understand the importance of consumer protection and are hence encouraged by this first-of-its-kind decision.”
 
Online counterfeiting is plaguing the e-commerce industry and a series of such incidents have been reported in the recent past.
 
Recently, the Delhi High Court had directed the fashion e-commerce portal Darveys.com to sell genuine products on its platform and ensure that the products sold by sellers are not fake.
 
Last month, notices were issued to e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart for selling fake products by Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).