The Delhi High Court on Monday concluded hearing arguments and reserved its order on whether it can hear Hindustan Unilever Ltd's (HUL) plea against Beco over an advertising campaign targeting Surf Excel and Vim products. According to reports from Business Standard, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani reserved the matter after hearing detailed submissions from both sides. The court clarified that it would not consider any request for interim or ad-interim relief until the jurisdictional issue is decided, including HUL's request relating to the continuation of Beco's advertising campaign. The jurisdiction question has emerged as the first legal hurdle in the dispute, with the court having issued notice to Kwick Living on August 19 while declining to grant an immediate restraint on the advertisements.
HUL is seeking an interim injunction restraining Beco from continuing its advertising campaign against Surf Excel and Vim, arguing that the campaign makes misleading claims about the products and harms HUL's brands. In detailed arguments from both sides, Senior Advocate Amit Sibal argued that the dispute has a sufficient connection with Delhi because Beco's advertisements are accessible to consumers in the capital across digital and social media platforms. According to Business Standard, Sibal relied on judicial precedents dealing with online advertising and e-commerce to distinguish between situations where digital content is simply viewable in a jurisdiction and cases where the website facilitates actual commercial transactions. Sibal argued that Beco's ability to accept orders from Delhi consumers establishes a direct commercial link between the alleged advertising campaign and the jurisdiction. The company contested Kwick Living's approach of treating product disparagement and defamation interchangeably, arguing that disparagement of a product and defamation of an individual constitute separate legal causes of action.
Mumbai-based Beco's #WarOnWhatsHidden campaign targeted HUL's Surf Excel and Vim Dishwash Gel, urging consumers to check the ingredients in everyday products. The campaign uses outdoor ads and videos to highlight ingredients such as benzisothiazolinone (BIT) and linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) in HUL's products. Beco says its own laundry and dishwashing products are made without these ingredients. As reported by OPEN Digital, co-founder Aditya Ruia revealed that the campaign was nearly a year in the making and was born out of a larger push to bring ingredient transparency to India's home-care category. Ruia explained that consumers and the general public needed the same kind of transparency in home care that they were beginning to demand in food. The campaign was launched on August 14 and placed Beco's home-cleaning products alongside HUL's products, alleging that certain ingredients in the HUL products can be associated with skin irritation and allergic reactions. The campaign has also traveled beyond Beco's own advertising, with influencers and creators amplifying the ingredient conversation online, with several creators approaching Beco after seeing the reports and the brand's messaging.
Despite economic challenges, major FMCG companies are significantly increasing their advertising budgets ahead of the festive season. Nestle India raised advertising spends by more than 40% YoY in the June quarter, while Colgate-Palmolive India increased ad and promotion expenditure 33.7% to ₹252 crore. Marico raised its outlay 25.3%, Dabur 13.6% to ₹229.5 crore, and HUL—the largest spender in absolute terms—increased its advertising spend 3.7% to ₹1,657 crore, its highest in nearly three years. The FMCG sector remains the top spender in India's advertising market, accounting for nearly one-third of total ad expenditure—about ₹31,000 crore in 2025—out of the ₹1 lakh crore-plus overall ad spend. Over half of FMCG marketing budgets are now allocated to digital media, with festive season driving 30-40% of total ad spend for most advertisers. The higher spending is increasingly directed towards premiumisation, new launches and emerging channels, with companies investing ahead of demand to strengthen brands and pursue market-share gains.
The dispute represents a significant shift in competitive strategy, with Beco using comparative advertising to challenge HUL in the home-care category, similar to how HUL previously used comparative advertising to challenge digital-first sunscreen brands. As reported by OPEN Digital, Ruia insists the campaign is not simply about Surf Excel or Vim, but is a category-level problem requiring more transparency in home care products. The legal dispute may have extended the campaign's life well beyond its original media plan, with each stage creating another wave of visibility from outdoor hoardings to earned media and finally into the courtroom. Brand expert Harish Bijoor warns that while comparative advertising can be an effective shortcut to awareness for a smaller brand, brands should be careful not to indulge in commercial disparagement of another brand. The campaign has established Beco's objective as ingredient transparency, with Ruia declining to promise another #WarOnWhatsHidden campaign but not ruling out further moves around the same theme.
