A courtroom battle between two of India’s biggest personal care players has ended in a quiet truce.
Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Honasa Consumer Ltd, the maker of Derma Co. and Mamaearth, reached a settlement on Thursday after a Delhi high court order forced HUL to tweak a disputed Lakmé sunscreen advertisement that Honasa said unfairly targeted rivals.
The court instructed HUL to alter the ad—which questioned the SPF claims of unnamed “online bestseller” sunscreens—and ordered Honasa to take down any social media posts referencing the Lakmé campaign.
It also gave HUL 24 hours to remove all social media posts related to the sunscreen ad and replace them with a modified version once ready. The changes must include removing the term “online bestseller” and changing the packaging colours shown in the campaign.
The spat, which escalated into lawsuits in both the 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 are coming under increasing scrutiny.
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At the heart of the dispute was a Lakmé commercial that claimed an “online bestseller” sunscreen advertising SPF 50 actually delivered only SPF 20. The campaign featured yellow-toned bottles—visually similar to rival products—next to Lakmé’s own golden packaging, and included billboard and social media promotions. HUL said the ad was backed by in-vivo testing, a globally accepted method for evaluating sunscreen efficacy.
Although no competitor was named, Honasa took issue with the visual cues, arguing the campaign disparaged its Derma Co. brand, which comes in orange-and-white packaging. Lakmé’s products, by contrast, use a golden-yellow colour scheme.
On Tuesday, Honasa co-founder Ghazal Alagh responded with a pointed LinkedIn post “welcoming” Lakmé to the “in-vivo tested SPF 50 club”—a standard Derma Co. claims to already meet.
Following the court’s order on Thursday, Honasa agreed to take down any social media posts related to Lakmé. HUL’s legal team said it would no longer pursue its own case against Honasa in the Bombay high court.
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Subsequently, in a statement, HUL reiterated its intent to raise awareness around SPF and claimed its campaign was part of a broader effort to set new benchmarks for sun protection in India.
“This campaign is part of Lakme’s broader commitment to set a new benchmark for sun protection standards in India. Unfortunately, there are some sellers, who have been falsely claiming SPF 50,” the statement added. “In the interest of consumers, upon independent testing by accredited labs, they fall far short of stated claims; misleading consumers on sunscreen, which has skin implications like pigmentation, skin ageing and spots.”
India’s sun care segment has seen a burst of product launches in recent years. According to Mintel’s Global New Product Database, sunscreen launches in India have grown by more than 20 percentage points between 2019 and 2024. But despite this surge, consumer understanding of SPF remains low—offering both a marketing opportunity and a risk of misinformation.
