The Chennai-based saree retail brand Nalli issued a cease and desist notice to the e-commerce website Snapdeal for the alleged unauthorised use of its brand name, trademark, and product images on Snapdeal’s website.<\/p>\n
Nalli, a brand closely associated with traditional silk and Kanchipuram sarees, alleged that Snapdeal sought to capitalise on the goodwill of the brand by creating the impression that original Nalli silk sarees were available on its website. Some products were being offered at a discounted price, even though Nalli conducts online sales only through its own official website and no third-party platform.<\/p>\n
On June 11, a Google search conducted by the brand revealed that Snapdeal had used Nalli’s registered trademark alongside photographs taken from Nalli’s website in its clothing segment for the online sale of silk sarees. A cease and desist notice was sent to Snapdeal immediately, directing it to discontinue use of the Nalli trademark in its search results and to remove all images of Nalli’s products from its website. Snapdeal complied with the notice and removed all relevant photographs.<\/p>\n
Nalli Chinnasami Chetty is the registered owner of the Nalli trademark in Classes 24 and 25, which cover fabrics, blankets, textile, footwear, and headgear, and in Classes 14 and 9, which cover precious metal ware, jewellery, computers, software, electronic instruments, and scientific appliances.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the same year, Shree Meena Creations, a Mumbai-based saree distributor, filed a lawsuit in the Bombay High Court against Flipkart, Amazon, and eBay and their sellers for selling replicas of its branded and copyrighted sarees.<\/p>\n
These incidents highlight a broader pattern in which online marketplaces are increasingly being held accountable for the acts of their sellers, ranging from the sale of counterfeit goods to deliberate fraud against consumers. The extent of liability that can be imposed on such platforms remains a contested legal question in India.<\/p>\n
Online marketplaces function as intermediaries that provide a digital space for buyers and sellers to transact. Under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, such intermediaries are entitled to safe harbour protection so long as they do not knowingly facilitate misuse of their platform and act promptly on complaints received from aggrieved parties.<\/p>\n
However, the safe harbour has limits. Consumers choose to transact on platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal on the basis of the brand’s reputation and the expectation of a certain quality of service. When counterfeit or infringing goods are sold through a platform, the platform too benefits from the transaction. The question of whether and when such benefit removes the protection afforded by intermediary status has not been comprehensively addressed by Indian law.<\/p>\n
This article is for general information and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult a qualified attorney before acting on any matter discussed here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nalli issued a cease and desist notice to Snapdeal for alleged unauthorised use of its trademark and images. The incident highlights ongoing legal debates concerning the liability of e-commerce platforms for the actions of their sellers in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":45,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[7262,1679,7263,3873,265,7017,266,41],"class_list":["post-25803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","category-trademarks","tag-cease-and-desist","tag-counterfeit-goods","tag-e-commerce-law-india","tag-intermediary-liability","tag-nalli","tag-online-marketplaces","tag-snapdeal","tag-trademark-infringement-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25803"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149824,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25803\/revisions\/149824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}