Deceptive television commercial: CCP imposes Rs 1.25 million fine on Reckitt Benckiser

The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has issued an order imposing a fine of Rs 1.25 million on Reckitt Benckiser Pakistan Limited for running a deceptive television commercial for its household cleaning product Dettol Surface Cleaner that was misleading the consumers and harming the business interests of Reckitt's competitors in violation of Section 10 of the Competition Act, 2010.
The order has been passed by a bench comprising Vadiyya Khalil Chairperson, Mueen Batlay Member Mergers & Acquisitions, Dr Shahzad Ansar Member OFT & Advocacy, and Ikram Ul Haque Qureshi, Member Cartels & Trade Abuses and Legal. The order disposes off the proceedings arising out of the show cause notice issued to Reckitt after a CCP inquiry found it to be in prima facie violation of Section 10 of the Act. CCP had initiated the enquiry into the matter after taking notice of a televised marketing campaign for Dettol Surface Cleaner. The marketing campaign made four distinct claims with regards to the efficacy of the product, which are as follows:
-- 'Phenyl is highly ineffective against germs';
-- 'Only Dettol Surface Cleaner can kill more germs than Phenyl';
-- 'Dettol Surface Cleaner can kill 99.9% of germs'; and
-- 'Dettol Surface Cleaner can kill germs 10 times more than Phenyl'.
With regards to the first claim, Reckitt submitted that the claims were based on a comparative disinfectant efficacy study carried out by its own laboratories between Dettol Surface Cleaner and unbranded ordinary phenyl. The order found that the study did not substantiate the claim against all types and brands of phenyl, and is thus misleading and capable of harming the business interests of phenyl manufacturers. In relation to the second claim, CCP's order reasons that in the absence of a comparison with other surface cleaners available in the market, it would not be appropriate to say that only Dettol Surface Cleaner can kill germs more than Phenyl.
Regarding the third claim, the order holds that while the term germs includes all disease carrying micro-organisms such as bacteria, virus, fungi, and protozoa etc, the product has only been tested against three species of bacteria.
Furthermore, the conditions required for Dettol Surface Cleaner to achieve 99.9% efficacy in a laboratory are appreciably different from those present in common households. This makes the claim misleading for the consumers. Concerning the fourth claim, the order states that the study only substantiated the claim with respect to unbranded ordinary phenyl, hence the claim is capable of misleading consumers and harming the business interest of Reckitt's competitors.
The order specifies that these claims constitute five distinct violations of Section 10 (1) read with Section 10(2) (a), (b) and (c) of the Act. Since M/s Reckitt Benckiser Pakistan Limited has made commitments to rectify three of the claims made, CCP has taken an extremely lenient view and imposed a token penalty of PKR 250,000 only for each violation. Through the order, CCP has directed Reckitt to pick a suitable alternative to the fourth claim of 'Kills 99.9% of Germs' within thirty days and file a compliance report with the Commission. If the undertaking fails to amend the outstanding claim within the time period stipulated, it will be liable to pay PKR 5 million for the violation relating to this claim, in addition to facing possible non-compliance proceedings. Reckitt has been reminded that deceptive marketing practices in the future may entail stricter penal consequences.
It is pertinent to mention here that it is important to enforce the prohibition against deceptive marketing not just to protect the end-consumers from anti-competitive behaviour, but to also safeguard competitors from false and misleading marketing that can severely harm business interests. CCP believes in creating a level-playing field where all play fairly and by the rules envisioned by competition law.-PR