Dabur India has sued Patanjali, accusing them of defamation, disparagement and unfair competition over a recent television commercial for Patanjali Special Chyawanprash.
According to the plaint, the ad features Baba Ramdev warning consumers that “most people are being duped in the name of Chyawanprash,” calling other brands “Dhoka” (fraud or deception). The ad promotes Patanjali’s product as the only “original” Chyawanprash offering the “true power of Ayurveda.”
Dabur has alleged that the commercial deliberately maligns its own flagship product, Dabur Chyawanprash, which has dominated the market since 1949 with over 61% market share, and misleads consumers into distrusting all other Chyawanprash makers.
The plaint states that such messaging constitutes “generic disparagement” of the entire Chyawanprash category, eroding consumer faith in Ayurveda-based health supplements.
The company further accuses Patanjali of making false claims that its Chyawanprash contains “51 Ayurvedic herbs and saffron,” despite a 2014 government advisory deeming the same claim misleading.
Further, it contends that the use of “Special” as a prefix to a classical Ayurvedic medicine violates Rule 157(1-B) of the Drugs Rules, which prohibits deceptive labelling of Ayurvedic formulations.