New Delhi: In a setback to cola giant, Pespsico India, the Delhi High Court today restrained the company from using a picture of "snow capped mountain" on its packaged water product, Acquafina, saying it conveys a misleading impression to buyers.
"We direct the company to remove pictorial device snow capped mountain from the label of article Aquafina within six months and also add the phrase as per BIS standard to its label with the phrase purity guaranteed ," a bench comprising Justices Mukul Mudgal and Manmohan said.
The Bench said using the picture on its water bottle is misleading as it sends a wrong impression that the product contains mountain water, which it does not.
"The connotation of snow-capped mountain does clearly indicates the origin of the water to be from mountain regions, (this) representation is indisputably not correct and would amount to conveying of a misleading impression to the buyers that the product is mineral and not packaged drinking water," the court said.
The bench noted that packaged drinking water is derived from potable water drawn from any source and it undergoes treatment whereas packaged mineral water is drawn only from mountains and hardly undergoes any treatment.
"As the certification available to the company is of packaged drinking water and not packaged mineral water, the pictorial device snow-capped mountain can cause confusion in the mind of the purchasing public about the source and origin of such water," the court, holding that Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) has the right to restrain the company from giving misleading information.
