Dhruv Rathee, a famous YouTuber and almost a year-long litigant in the case Dabur India Limited vs. Rathee, agreed to conceal the packaging of Dabur’s Real fruit juice in his videos, bringing an end to the dispute on June 18.
The health effects of packaged fruit juices were compared to those of fresh fruit juices in the video. The “REAL” fruit juice brand and logo were utilised in the video.
After hearing both sides’ arguments, single-judge Justice Krishna Rao dismissed Dabur’s lawsuit, with the parties ultimately agreeing to implement Rathee’s proposal to make the Real fruit juice label less clear.
Justice Rao noted in the order issued on June 18 that, “The defendant no.1 without prejudice to his rights and contentions, including, inter alia, his right to freedom of speech and expression and to make fair comment, proposed to blur and/or use generic fruit juice packaging by an e-mail dated 15th of March, 2024. Such proposal was accepted in principle by the plaintiff by its e-mail dated 19th March, 2024. In furtherance of the above, the defendant no.1 through its advocate’s e-mail dated 12th June, 2024 forwarded a video containing the generic fruit juice packaging proposed to be used in the video in place of packaging alleged to be identical and/or deceptively similar to that of the plaintiff,” .
The court further noted that the plaintiff has consented to the modifications that Rathee has made to the video, which include removing any references or uses of ‘REAL’ trademarks, copyright, content, labelling, packaging, ads, and so on. This was recorded by the court.
There was also an addition stating that Dabur does not object to the video being shared or published on social media as the edits have been made and approved.
The Court observe, “The parties have agreed that no useful purpose would be served by keeping the suit and the applications therein pending and the suit itself may be disposed of in terms of the settlement agreed between the plaintiff and the defendant,”.
The dispute stemmed from Rathee’s usage of the ‘REAL’ trademarks in a video his channel posted on YouTube. In response to this, Dabur petitioned the court for a review.
In March 2023, a different bench of Justice Ravi Krishan Kapur issued a comprehensive order compelling YouTube and other social media sites to remove or disable the video content.
The Court subsequently declared that the video developer had crossed the “lakshman rekha” and specifically targeted Real by contrasting it with fresh fruit juices and demonstrating how it impacts people’s health and hair development, particularly in young people.
Dabur India was represented by advocates Biswaroop Mukherjee, Abir Debnath, Debnath Ghosh, and Bose Pradipta.
Mujeeb Rahman, Eshna Kumar, Yash Vardhan Deora, Nakul Gandhi, Satyaki Mukherjee, and senior counsel Ranjan Bachawat represented Dhruv Rathee.
Representing YouTube were advocates Neel Mason, Phiroze Edulji, Ankit Rastogi, Roustavi Mukherjee, and Priyanka Bhattacharya.