By Arpan Chaturvedi and Munsif Vengattil
BENGALURU, Oct 6 (Reuters) – A court on Tuesday allowed Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries to continue marketing its Campa brand products as “energy drinks,” a relief to its beverages arm which said a label ban by India’s food regulator jeopardized its business.
The relief came in a plea filed this month, which targeted a June 30 order from India’s food safety regulator directing makers of high-caffeine beverages sold as “energy drinks” to stop using the description.
PepsiCo and Monster Beverage sued the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) last week, while Austria’s Red Bull secured a court reprieve to continue using the designation.
At Tuesday’s hearing, the Delhi High Court asked FSSAI’s lawyer why the regulator had not issued Reliance a notice before passing the order, telling the agency it was “never too late” to correct its mistake.
The court will next hear the case on November 5. It is set to hear similar pleas from PepsiCo and Monster Beverage later on Tuesday.
FSSAI’s crackdown is part of a broader, India-wide food safety push this year – including raids, shutdowns and new warning-label requirements – driven by growing concern over the health risks posed by such products.
Reliance holds finished inventory of 168 million cans and 120 million plastic bottles, along with pre-printed packaging for an additional 400 million cans and 360 million bottles bearing the “Energy Drink” labelling, it said in its October filing.
State authorities have seized Reliance stock and ordered e-commerce platforms to remove the products, causing “substantial disruption” to its business operations, said Reliance Consumer Products, the beverages arm of Reliance, in its filing.
FSSAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reliance revived the Campa brand in 2023 and has used its retail network and low prices to challenge Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. The label ban threatens its ambitions in India’s fast-growing energy drinks market, where retail sales are expanding 12.6% a year, outstripping growth in the US and China, according to Euromonitor.
(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Munsif Vengattil; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Shri Navaratnam and Thomas Derpinghaus)
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