They, Honasa AD -dispute amid rising heat in the sunscreen wars of India | Company Business News

A battle of the courtroom between two of the biggest personal care players in India has ended in a quiet ceasefire. Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Honasa Consumer Ltd, the producer of Derma Co. and Mamaarth, reached a settlement on Thursday after an order from the Delhi High Court drafted a district of Lakmé Sunscreen advertisement that Honasa said, unfairly targeted opponents. The court instructed them to change the advertisement -questioning the SPF claims of unnamed “online -top seller” -Sonscreens -and Honasa ordered to take off any posts on social media with reference to the Lakmé campaign. It also gave them 24 hours to remove all posts on social media related to the sunscreen ad and replace them with a modified version as soon as it is ready. The changes should include the removal of the term “online bestseller” and the change of the packaging colors shown in the campaign. The splash, which has escalated to lawsuits in both Delhi and Bombay High Courts this week, reflects the rising competitive heat in India’s £ 2,000 Crore Sun Care Market, where scientific claims and marketing strategies come under increasing investigation. The core of the dispute was a Lakmé ad that claimed an ‘online top-selling’ sunscreen ad SPF 50, only SPF 20 delivered. The campaign contains yellow-colored bottles-which contain ourselves similar to competing products-to Lakmé’s own gold packaging, and included the promotion of Billboard and Social Media. They said the advertisement is supported by In-Vivo testing, a global accepted method of evaluating the effectiveness of the sunscreen. Although no participant was mentioned, Honasa has chalked up the visual clues and argued that the campaign rejected its Derma Co. brand, which comes in orange-and-white packaging. Lakmé’s products, on the other hand, use a golden yellow color scheme. On Tuesday, Honasa founder Ghazal Alagh replied with a pointed LinkedIn post “welcoming” lakmé on the “In-Vivo Tested SPF 50 Club”-a standard Derma Co. claims he is already meeting. After the court’s order on Thursday, Honasa agreed to take off any social media posts related to Lakmé. Their legal team said he would no longer pursue his own case against Honasa in the Bombay High Court. Thereafter, in a statement, they repeatedly repeated his intention to raise awareness around SPF and claim that his campaign was part of a broader attempt to set new criteria for sun protection in India. “This campaign is part of Lakme’s broader commitment to drawing up a new measure for Sun Protection standards in India. Unfortunately, there are some sellers who falsely claimed on SPF 50,” the statement added. “In the interests of consumers, on independent testing by accredited laboratories, they fall very short of the covered claims; misleading consumers on sunscreen, who have skin implications such as pigmentation, skin aging and spots.” The Sun Care segment of India has seen an outburst of the introduction of the product over the past few years. According to Mintel’s global new product database, the launch of sunscreen in India has grown by more than 20 percentage points between 2019 and 2024. But despite this boom, the consumer concept of SPF remains low – which has a marketing opportunity and a risk of wrong information. First published: 17 Apr 2025, 06:24 pm ist