M/s.Kaleeshwari Refinery Private Limited …..Plaintiff
Versus
Akshay A ,Youtube Channel, ‘DiCapScoop” ….Defendant
The plaintiff claimed to leading market leader in the refined sunflower oil (RSO) and edible oil sector. Plaintiff has been marking the product with its brand by name ‘ Gold Winner‘ over 30 years from 1993. The plaintiff manufactures and packs various edible oils such as sunflower oil, groundnut oil, palm oil, olive oil, blended oil (olive + corn combo) etc., with its well known trade mark namely ‘Gold Winner‘. The plaintiff’s product is of high standard quality and earns good Will and reputation among the customers. As on today, the plaintiff is one of the premier in Edible Oil sector.
The defendant is a self-proclaimed social media influencer and he has accounts on several social media platforms including YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. He has approximately 3,35,000 subscribers for his You Tube account. The defendant posts various videos by criticising certain top brands by giving review about quality of the products and bringing negative attention on popular brands.
REASON FOR FILING THE PRESENT SUIT
On 19.02.2023 the defendant had posted a video by comparing the plaintiff’s product ‘Gold Winner‘. He had posted a video where he compared two different quantity range of ‘Gold Winner‘ and alleged that one litre pocket of oil consists of only 7 pockets of 100 ml and claimed that one litre ‘Gold Winner‘ oil is selling 300 ml less and the consumers got only 700 ml of oil, despite they paid the price for 1 litre oil.
The defendant made a conscious attempt to defame the product and he misled his viewers and the videos were posted just to bring down the hard earned reputation of the plaintiff’s brand ‘Gold Winner‘. The video has been shared in all platforms including, but not limited to twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The videos are perceived to be defamatory.
The action of the defendant has tarnished the image of the plaintiff‘s market more importantly among the general public.
The plaintiff has filed this suit for recovery of damages of Rs.1 Crore from the defendant along with permanent injunction for restraining the defendant.
The defendant didn’t appeared before the court to claim that whatever he had spoken in the video demonstrated in his YouTube channel namely ”DiCapScoop” is true and he has reasons to alert the public from not buying the plaintiff’s product.
HON’BLE MADRAS HIGH COURT observation
Court said, that there is no doubt that the plaintiff’s product is a popular one and it gains a good reputation from the consumers. The plaintiff’s product is in the market for 30 years and it has a large consumers base. The plaintiff has registered trade mark and fought against several competitors who had tried to imitate their trade mark to pass their products.
In such circumstances the defendants action to disparage plaintiff’s product in a misleading manner would no doubt invite negative attention from the viewers and that will influence them to switch-over to some other products.
So the defendant’s action appears to be with an intention to cause defame and damage the plaintiff’s product.
Court said, Plaintiff has claimed Rs.1 Crore as damages but plaintiff has not substantiated the damages that was alleged to have been suffered by plaintiff in monetary terms. However, the mental agony suffered by plaintiff due to the action of the defendant is very much understandable. The damaging statements made by the defendant in the audio and visual mode has been transmitted in a social media like YouTube, which has large viewers base. So the defendant has not only made statements which are defamatory in nature but also transmitted it to be received and viewed by others.
So the plaintiff Proved all the essential elements that should be proved in a case for defamation. Plaintiff intention was mainly to stop the defendant from further transmitting the content to damage the plaintiff’s brand. As the plaintiff had spent a sizeable amount to file the suit due to the reckless action of the defendant. Considering all these factors, Court directed that plaintiff is entitled to recover a reasonable damages of Rs.7,00,000/-[ Rupees Seven Lakhs only] from the defendant and permanent injuction was also granted to plaintiff against the defendant.
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