Delhi High Court Orders Blocking of Fraudulent Websites Violating Croma’s Trademark

Delhi High Court Orders Blocking of Fraudulent Websites Violating Croma’s Trademark

The Delhi High Court has issued an order directing the Union Government to permanently block access to three websites. These websites were engaging in fraudulent activities, deceiving people by collecting money under the guise of recruiting them for part-time jobs at Croma, the renowned electronics retail store chain owned by Tata.

Justice Sanjeev Narula issued an order for the permanent suspension and disabling of UPI IDs and mobile numbers associated with the websites. Additionally, a permanent injunction was granted in favour of Infiniti Retail Limited, the owner of the retail stores. Notably, Infiniti Retail operates as a subsidiary of the Tata Group.

Legal action was initiated against three websites — “www.croma-share.com”, “www.croma-2.com”, and “www.croma-1.com”. The objective was to prevent them from violating the registered trademark and copyright associated with the name “CROMA”.

Croma asserted that the defendants messaged unsuspecting consumers via WhatsApp, enticing them with job offers at Croma. These individuals were then instructed to transfer money to bank accounts or UPI IDs provided by the defendants.

It was further claimed that the victims suffered losses amounting to ₹1,65,000 due to the fraudulent activity.

Justice Narula, considering the Plaintiff’s significant presence in the market, substantiated by their annual revenue and promotional data, along with the widely recognised status of the CROMA marks, concluded that the impugned activities were inflicting irreparable harm to their reputation and goodwill. Consequently, he granted the requested permanent injunction.

He added that the persons operating the impugned websites were using the CROMA mark to create a misperception of association with the Croma brand and were soliciting personal information and money from the consumers.

He mentioned that the individuals managing the questioned websites employed the mark to mislead people into thinking there was an affiliation with the Croma brand. Furthermore, these individuals were requesting personal details and money from the consumers.

The Court stated that individuals would approach unsuspecting consumers with enticing job offers. These offers required the consumers to buy products from the questioned websites, with a promise to refund the amount along with an additional commission.

The Court observed that due to the impugned domain names completely incorporating the Plaintiff’s “CROMA” mark, the general public, mistakenly believing they were securing employment with the Plaintiff company, became victims of the scheme orchestrated by Defendants No. 1 to 4.

On December 5, 2022, the Delhi Court issued an interim injunction order in favour of Croma and directed the suspension of websites that were infringing on Croma’s trademark.

Taking into account that the defendants managing the websites refrained from presenting any defence to challenge the lawsuit, the Court concluded that it would be unnecessary to instruct the Plaintiff to provide ex-parte evidence. The Court’s opinion was based on the fact that the pleadings and accompanying documents clearly demonstrated that Defendants are improperly using the Plaintiff’s CROMA trademarks, thereby entitling the Plaintiff to legal protection.