Biscuit maker Britannia Industries has challenged the Delhi High Court’s injunction restricting it from using the existing packaging of ‘Nutri Choice Digestive Zero’ biscuits.
The case will come up for hearing on September 9.
Rival ITC had alleged that Britannia copied the packaging of its ‘Sunfeast Farmlite Digestive All Good’ biscuits.
Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court in an interim order on September 6 held that Britannia’s packaging was “deceptively similar” to that of ITC’s brand. Both the offerings are priced at ₹25 for 100 gram.
“As far as the injunction order passed by the Delhi High Court is concerned, we have challenged the injunction order before the Division Bench of Delhi High Court,” Britannia said in a notice to the bourses.
Counter suit A “counter suit” against ITC has also been filed.
“We have also filed a counter suit against ITC for copying our colour combination in their packaging,” the notice to the bourses further read.
According to Britannia, NutriChoice – its flagship brand in the health category of biscuits – was launched in 1998 and commands a leadership market share of approximately 70 per cent (in the premium health category). Packaging is well co-ordinated and backed by strong portfolio packaging rationale and consumer logic.
The packaging architecture of NutriChoice has been built on the brand’s own strategy over years and “has not been influenced” by any other brand, it further claimed.
Britannia stock closed at ₹3474.25, down by 0.42 per cent on the BSE on Thursday, while that of ITC closed at ₹265.30, up by 1.38 per cent.