The legal tussle between skincare heavyweight Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and rising challenger Honasa Consumer—owner of The Derma Co—has reached a resolution in the Delhi High Court, with HUL agreeing to pull back its controversial Lakme Sun Expert SPF 50 campaign.
HUL informed the court on Friday that it would take down the existing advertisement, which had stirred controversy for allegedly taking indirect jabs at competing sunscreens. The company also committed to revising the content before relaunching it, ensuring that no part of the ad could be interpreted as targeting The Derma Co.
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Online versions of the ad will be removed within 24 hours, and physical hoardings will come down within 48, HUL said in its submission. As an additional step to eliminate brand confusion, the company has agreed to change the product’s color in the advertisement from orange to yellow—a move prompted by concerns that the original hue too closely resembled The Derma Co’s signature packaging.
This comes just a day after the Delhi High Court noted that the Lakme advertisement appeared “disparaging on the face of it.” The ad in question claimed that some sunscreens on the market boast SPF 50 ratings but deliver as little as SPF 20 protection. It promoted Lakme’s own formula as being backed by in-vivo testing, a globally recognized method for verifying SPF claims.
The implication didn’t sit well with Honasa, which pointed out that The Derma Co also uses in-vivo testing for its SPF 50 products. They argued that the ad misled consumers into believing that their brand was one of the culprits making false protection claims. The visual resemblance of one of the “rival” sunscreen bottles shown in the ad to The Derma Co’s product only added fuel to the fire.
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The episode highlights the escalating competition in India’s booming skincare and sunscreen segment, where up-and-coming digital-first players like The Derma Co are beginning to rattle the cages of legacy brands like HUL.
