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Dabur vs ASCI: Misleading Health Claims

Dabur India Limited faced a complaint from the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) regarding exaggerated claims in their advertisement for 'Dabur Vita', an Ayurvedic health product aimed at enhancing children's immunity. The Delhi High Court dismissed Dabur's plea to prevent ASCI's intervention, ruling that the claims were misleading and disparaged competitors without adequate scientific backing. The court emphasized the need for substantiated health claims in advertising to protect consumers from potential misinformation.

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36 views13 pages

Dabur vs ASCI: Misleading Health Claims

Dabur India Limited faced a complaint from the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) regarding exaggerated claims in their advertisement for 'Dabur Vita', an Ayurvedic health product aimed at enhancing children's immunity. The Delhi High Court dismissed Dabur's plea to prevent ASCI's intervention, ruling that the claims were misleading and disparaged competitors without adequate scientific backing. The court emphasized the need for substantiated health claims in advertising to protect consumers from potential misinformation.

Uploaded by

k97147485
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

DABUR INDIA LIMITED

VS
ADVERTISING STANDARD
COUNSEL OF INDIA
LAKSHAY GUPTA
18226
SECTION-B
INTRODUCTION
VS.
FACTS OF THE CASE
• Dabur India Limited, a renowned company in the Ayurvedic and health products sector,
launched ‘Dabur Vita’, promoting it as an Ayurvedic proprietary medicine aimed at
enhancing immunity in children.
• The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a self-regulatory organization in the
advertising industry, received a complaint alleging that Dabur’s advertisement contained
exaggerated claims without adequate scientific backing.
ISSUES OF THE CASE
1.Whether the claims made in the advertisement were misleading due to
lack of scientific evidence.
2.Whether such claims disparaged other health drinks in the market by
asserting superiority without substantiation.
ARGUMENTS BY DABUR
INDIA LIMITED
PLAINTIFF
• The company contended that the advertisement did not intend to disparage competitors,
as it did not explicitly reference any other products. 
• They argued that advertising inherently involves creative expressions and permissible
hyperbole to highlight a product’s qualities. 
• Dabur maintained that the claims were based on studies conducted by independent
research organizations evaluating the immunomodulatory and antioxidant effects of
‘Dabur Vita’.
ARGUMENTS BY ASCI
DEFENDANT
• ASCI asserted that the claims ‘No other health drink gives your child better immunity’ and
‘India’s Best Immunity Expert’ were superlative and comparative, lacking adequate
scientific evidence. 
• The Fast Track Complaints Panel (FTCP) of ASCI reviewed the complaint and found that
while individual ingredients of ‘Dabur Vita’ were known to boost immunity, there was no
empirical evidence demonstrating the combined efficacy of these ingredients in the product.
• ASCI emphasized that such unsubstantiated claims could mislead consumers and unfairly
undermine other products in the market.
JUDGMENT
• The Delhi High Court dismissed Dabur’s plea to restrain ASCI from interfering with the
broadcast of the advertisement. The court observed: 
• The advertisement’s claim that ‘No other health drink gives your child better immunity’
implicitly suggested the inferiority of all other products in the market, thereby disparaging
competitors.
• While creative freedom and some degree of hyperbole are acceptable in advertising, there
is a clear distinction between harmless exaggeration and misleading claims, especially
concerning products related to human health.
• At the interim stage, the efficacy of ‘Dabur Vita’ as claimed in the advertisement was not
established per standard norms, and the claims could potentially mislead consumers. 
• The court highlighted that Dabur had not sought to set aside the FTCP’s findings nor
provided sufficient scientific evidence to substantiate its claims. Consequently, the court
upheld ASCI’s directive, emphasizing the importance of protecting consumers from
potentially misleading health-related claims in advertisements. 

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