NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: The CEO of Hamdard Laboratories in India on Thursday welcomed a decision by the Delhi High Court to “permanently restrain” retailers on Amazon.in from selling Pakistan-made Rooh Afza on the e-commerce website.
Rooh Afza, an ultra-sweet concoction of herbs and fruits, was first sold in 1907 in Delhi by Hakim Hafiz Abdul Majeed, a traditional healing practitioner. In 1947, with the partition of British India, one son stayed in Delhi while the other moved to the new country, Pakistan.
They set up factories in each country. Today, Hamdard National Foundation, India, and Hamdard Laboratories, Pakistan, manufacture the product in their respective national domains while the Rooh Afza trademark is registered in both countries.
The high court in New Delhi issued its verdict in September after the product’s owner in India filed a suit, saying some of the products listed as Rooh Afza on Amazon India were not manufactured by it.
“The High court ruling is on expected lines, to safeguard the local business and against illegal import,” Hamdard India Ceo Hamid Ahmed told Arab News.
“Basically, whoever has got the trademark in a particular country Amazon can sell only those products. The high court ruling says that only authorized products of what can sell in the particular country, whoever has got the trademark to sell, should be allowed to sell and not anyone ... illegal imports cannot be sold.”
On Wednesday, a representative for Hamdard Pakistan said the company was “never involved” in any business with India since “that is neither our domain nor we sell our products in that country.”
“Hamdard Pakistan has got nothing to do with the ban on Rooh Afza in India as the company does not export its product to that country,” Faiz Ullah Jawad, the company’s marketing and business development director, told Arab News. “Some individuals sell our product on different e-commerce platforms from Dubai on their own.”
“We don’t even know who these sellers are who have been banned from selling Rooh Afza in India,” he added.
Jawad said the court’s decision would have “zero impact” on Hamdard Pakistan's business in the international market.
