ITC agrees to alter disparaging advertisement against Tropicana

ITC Limited has submitted before the Delhi High Court that it would alter its advertisement for the promotion of its newly launched juice brand ‘BNatural‘, and remove allegedly disparaging references to PepsiCo’s Tropicana..The submission was made yesterday during the hearing of the plea filed by PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd. through J Sagar Associates seeking injunction against the advertisement campaign launched by ITC Limited..ITC had published several advertisements prior to a promotional event which was held in Mumbai, wherein it had asked other companies including PepsiCo to join them in making juices concentrate-free..The Court on Friday had directed the company to suspend its advertising campaign and remove the references regarding PepsiCo’s Tropicana brand and had asked them to return with a revised campaign..ITC was represented by a battery of lawyers including Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sajan Poovayya, Rajiv Nayar and Arvind Nigam, while PepsiCo was represented by Senior Advocates P Chidambaram and AS Chandhiok briefed by JSA Partner Dheeraj Nair, Senior Associate Kunal Mimani and Associate Shruti Dass..Singhvi stated that the alteration to the advertisement was an interim measure and that the company will contest the allegation that the said advertisement was disparaging in nature..The Singh Judge Bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw asked ITC to make a video of the proceedings of the promotional event and listed the matter for May 9.