Indo-Pak Rooh Afza battle: HC directs Amazon to take down listing of products not by Hamdard

Rooh Afza was first introduced by Hakim Hafiz Abdul Majeed in Delhi, but following Partition, his elder son moved to India and the younger one to Pakistan. While Hamdard National Foundation owns rights over the drink in India, Hamdard Laboratories (Waqf) manufactures it in Pakistan.

In the suit, Hamdard National Foundation and Hamdard Laboratories India submitted that it owns rights over ‘Hamdard’ and ‘Rooh Afza’ marks, but last year it noticed various entities were selling ‘Rooh Afza’ products on Amazon. While some of the listings were removed after it sent notices to the sellers and Amazon India, the court was told, the company recently found a seller offering ‘Rooh Afza’ bottles which have been manufactured in Pakistan. The same does not comply with the legal requirements in India, the court was told.

The court in the order dated September 5 said when one clicks on the link ‘Visit the Hamdard Store’, which is provided next to the product listing of Golden Leaf — the seller of imported Rooh Afza on Amazon, the consumer is taken to the webpage of Hamdard Laboratories India.

“Thus, any consumer or user on the platform is likely to confuse the ‘ROOH AFZA’ product originating from Hamdard Laboratories (Waqf), Pakistan as being connected or originating from the Plaintiffs..,” said the court. The bench said since Amazon claims to be an intermediary, it has an obligation to disclose names of sellers and their contact details, with the product listings. It has also directed Amazon to file an affidavit clarifying whether such details are mentioned on the Rooh Afza product listings, invoices and product labels.