Court asks Pepsi to remove mountain picture from water bottle

New Delhi, Nov 21: The Delhi High Court Friday directed Pepsi to remove the picture of a snow capped mountain from its packaged water product Aquafina, saying it gives a misleading impression to the consumers.

“We direct Pepsi to remove pictorial device snow capped mountain from label of Aquafina within six months and also add the phrase 'as per BIS standard' to its label with the phrase 'purity guaranteed',” said a bench comprising Justices Mukul Mudgal and Manmohan.

“The pictorial device suggests that the packaged mineral water being manufactured and marketed by the company has its origin in the mountain which creates a misleading impression in the minds of the purchasing public,” the bench said.

“The connotation of snow-capped mountain does clearly indicate the origin of the water to be from mountain regions. (This) representation is indisputably not correct and would amount to conveying a misleading impression to the buyers that the product is mineral and not packaged drinking water,” the court said.

“As the certification available to the company is of packaged drinking water and not packaged mineral water, the pictorial device snow-capped mountain can cause confusion in the mind of the purchasing public about the source and origin of such water,” the court said.

The court passed the direction on a petition filed by Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) challenging a single bench order of the court, which had allowed the company to use the mountain picture on its product.

--IANS