Nalli Sarees accuses Snapdeal of using their name and lifting images

On June 11, Chennai based garment manufacturer Nalli Sarees issued a cease and desist notice to ecommerce website Snapdeal for allegedly using the sari giant's trademarked 'Nalli' as a search word on its platform and for supposedly lifting images from its website. Though Snapdeal has now taken down the images and the search word on its site, KV Balasubramaniam, CFO of Nalli Sarees, says that the brand is still upset.

Balasubramaniam says that websites like Snapdeal should "take responsibility for what is going on their site". He points out that the company is the registered proprietor of the name Nalli. "We are a 100-year-old company. We have our own online business, and are registered proprietors of Nalli — no one else has a right over it!

Sharath Chandra, general counsel for Nalli Trust, says the notice "advised Snapdeal to remove the images which were copied from our website nalli. com and images of products (silk sarees) which carried the name of Nalli, but did not originate from Nalli, within 7 days from their website."

Balasubramani am adds, "We have not come to a point where we want to sue them yet. We spend a lot of money annually on hiring models and top photographers to shoot our saris. So we can't give these (images) away like this."

When contacted, Snapdeal told ETPanache in a statement, "At any time, there are mi llions of products listed for sale on the marketplace platform. As and when Snapdeal is notified of any counterfeit product on its marketplace platform, it initiates steps to take down such listings, and in certain cases also engages with the seller of the listing to verify the claim of counterfeit. Ethical business practice and customer experience is our prime focus."