The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Delhi has ordered Emami, the manufacturer of “Fair and Handsome” cream, to pay a fine of Rs 15 lakh and stop running misleading advertisements. The ruling was made after a consumer, Nikhil Jain, filed a case against Emami, claiming that the company had not provided sufficient evidence to support its claims about the product’s effectiveness. The commission found that Emami’s marketing materials, including celebrity-endorsed ads, were misleading and presented a false sense of guaranteed fairness without providing necessary conditions for achieving the results. As a result, Emami was ordered to retract its misleading ads, refrain from using deceptive branding, and pay a fine, as well as compensation and litigation costs. This is not the first time Emami has faced scrutiny over its “Fair and Handsome” product, with a similar case in 2015 resulting in a fine that was later overturned. This latest ruling reaffirms the consumer court’s stance against deceptive marketing practices.
