The Indian maker of Rooh Afza, Hamdard National Foundation, filed a petition alleging that Pakistan-made Rooh Afza was being marketed in India through Amazon, and the Delhi High Court ordered the e-commerce site to delete the listings, according to the Indian Express.
Rooh Afza is a well-known drink that has been consumed in India for over a century. The court found it strange that its imported version was being marketed on Amazon, especially without any information about the producer. On Wednesday, Justice Prathiba M Singh directed that the ‘listings of infringing ‘Rooh Afza’ items’ be removed from http://www.amazon.in within 48 hours.
Rooh Afza, first established by Hakim Hafiz Abdul Majeed in Delhi over a century ago, was separated after partition when Hakim’s elder son picked India and the younger selected Pakistan. The drink is currently owned by Hamdard National Foundation in India, and Hamdard Laboratories (Waqf) makes it in Pakistan.
Last year, the Hamdard National Foundation discovered vendors listing Rooh Afza and notified several of them. Recently, it was discovered that the Rooh Afza bottles being sold in India on Amazon were made in Pakistan, which is illegal.
The ‘Visit the Hamdard Store’ link provided next to the items leads purchasers to the Hamdard Laboratories India website. This may confuse people and indicate that the corporations in Pakistan and India are somehow linked. The court also ordered Amazon to provide vendor identities since the e-commerce giant claims to be a middleman.
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