Emami ordered to pay ₹15 lakh in damages in 2013 case over fairness cream

NEW DELHI: A Delhi district consumer dispute redressal commission on Monday ordered personal care company, Emami Ltd to pay ₹15 lakh in punitive damages on a 2013 complaint of a Delhi resident for misleading advertising and unfair trade practices.

The company has been ordered to deposit punitive damages of ₹14.5 lakh into the State Consumer Welfare Funds Delhi bank account and pay ₹50,000 to Nikhil Jain, a resident of Rohini in northwest Delhi, who bought the cream in October 2012 and filed the complaint against the Kolkata-headquartered beauty and wellness company. Tthe firm has also been told to pay ₹10,000 in costs.

Jain filed a complaint in 2013 with the district consumer forum complaining that he had used the company’s “Fair and Handsome Cream” which was advertised to provide fair skin to users in three weeks. He said the product was defective since his skin didn’t become fairer despite using it according to the company’s instructions on the package.

During the hearing, the company defended its product, asserting it was scientifically tested and designed to protect men aged 16 to 35 from skin darkening caused by UV rays. Also, it argued that the benefit from a personal care product depended “upon a host of other adjacent factors such as proper usage of the product and proper nutritious diet, exercise, healthy habits, hygienic living condition etc”.

Jain reasoned that the packet of cream that he bought for ₹79 in 2012 did not contain all these instructions and conditions.

The bench agreed.

“The conclusions drawn above, makes it crystal clear that the OP is offering the product - Fair and Handsome cream with few, negligible and limited instructions on the packaging and labeling that its use regular use for three weeks will result into fairness in the skin of man, despite knowing that instructions mentioned are incomplete instructions and for want of following the other requirements, it will not give the result claimed,” the bench comprising president Inder Jeet Singh and member Rashmi Bansal of the central district’s consumer dispute redressal commission said in its December 9 order.

This was not the first time the case was heard. A previous bench of the commission ruled in favour of Jain in October 2015. However, Emami challenged the verdict in the state consumer commission, which subsequently remanded the case back to the district commission for fresh adjudication with additional evidence.

The commission said: “The Opposite Party (Emami) offers the product with negligible and limited instructions on its packaging and labeling, claiming that regular use over three weeks will result in fairer skin. However, these instructions are incomplete and fail to address additional requirements necessary to achieve the advertised results.”

The bench emphasised that an average consumer could reasonably be misled into believing that simply following the given instructions would yield the promised outcome. It concluded that Emami engaged in unfair trade practices by using deceptive packaging and advertisements to boost sales.

Emami is yet to respond to the ruling.