HC Orders Amazon to Pay ₹340 Cr to Lifestyle Equities for Infringement

On Monday, the Delhi High Court ruled that Amazon will have to pay $39 million, or about Rs 340 crore, to Lifestyle Equities for violating the e-commerce conglomerate’s trademark. 

In 2020, Lifestyle Equities sued Amazon Technologies and associates for trademark infringement by claiming that they used a mark that resembled theirs to a lot of apparel and other goods on their platforms. The claim said that Amazon Technologies was infringing by selling products branded ‘Symbol’ and with Cloudtail India, one of the sellers on the site, also selling these products on Amazon. 

The High Court issued an ex parte order on 2020/10/12 against Amazon restraining them from using the infringing symbol and subsequently Amazon Seller Services was ordered to cancel all infringing products to his account. When Amazon Technologies failed to show up, the court confirmed the order.

As the case was ongoing, Cloudtail India was willing to accept an injunction and a settlement that included damages. The mediation between the parties has unsuccessful, however. The company claimed that the sole responsibility for the damages rested with Cloudtail and there was an Amazon brand license and a distribution agreement which absolved others from liability in case of breaches. 

Lifestyle Equities, however, argued that the unauthorized mark was not included in this agreement and imposed a joint liability against both Amazon and Cloudtail. In a single judge bench, Justice Pratibha Singh said that although Cloudtail has accepted its liability, Lifestyle can also sue Amazon for damages. 

The court also accepted the role of intermediary that Amazon Seller Services, LLC offered, as well as its compliance with the set orders of the court. Since there was no substantial relief sought against it and the company undertook to refrain from future infringing listings of products, he/she was absolved of the claim together with the other parties.