Honasa Consumer & HUL settle ad dispute: Lakme sunscreen campaign modified after court intervention

Honasa Consumer, the parent company of beauty and personal care brand Mamaearth, and Hindustan Unilever (HUL) on Friday settled their dispute with the FMCG giant undertaking before the Delhi High Court that it will not launch any similar advertisement disparaging the former’s products including The Derma Co sunscreen.

HUL had last week agreed to make “minor” modifications in its ‘Lakme Sun Expert SPF 50’ advertisement campaign that allegedly disparaged Honsa Consumer’s The Derma Co sunscreen.

Justice Amit Bansal while noting the terms of the settlement also said that HUL may continue with the modified advertisement for Lakme sunscreen, wherein it had replaced the "online best-seller" claim with “some other seller” and also changed the competitor's product shown in its advertisement to a "light yellow" shade from orange colour.


The parties and their respective representatives, including the promoters of Honasa, shall be bound by the undertaking, the high court directed.

Honasa Consumer had moved the HC seeking removal of HUL’s ad campaign questioning the efficacy of digital-first sunscreen brands. It had alleged that the ‘Lakme Sun Expert SPF 50’ advertisement campaign was “false, disparaging, misleading and unfair”, targeting Honasa’s “The Derma Co 1% Hyaluronic Sunscreen Aqua Gel SPF 50" by making clear reference to it and undermining competing products.

Last week, the court had observed that the country’s largest consumer product company’s advertisement of Lakme sunscreen "on the face of it, is disparaging". Next day, HUL agreed to modify its advertisement.