Delhi High Court Orders Suspension Of Google Forms Unauthorisedly Inviting Public To Apply For 'Starbucks' Franchise

The Delhi High Court has directed Google to suspend URLs of various Google Forms inviting general public to apply for “Starbucks Franchise”. Starbucks does not work on a franchise model in India.

Justice Anish Dayal also said that Starbucks, the multinational chain of coffeehouses, will be at liberty to file an affidavit listing out other similar URLs of Google Forms after which Google may suspend the same.

“In the event, defendant No.4, (Google) for any reason whatsoever, has a reservation to any particular URL, they will be at liberty to respond to the plaintiffs in that regard and who will turn will be at liberty to approach this Court for further adjudication and relief,” the court said.

Justice Dayal was dealing with a suit filed by Starbucks against unknown “john doe” entities holding themselves out to be its franchisees, without any authorisation in that regard.

In April last year, an interim injunction was passed in favour of Starbucks. However, an application was recently filed seeking to restrain various imposters impersonating as “Starbucks Franchise”.

The imposters were doing so through Google Forms which had the heading as “StarBucks franchise” and states that one can apply on the form to get more information about taking franchise of Starbucks.

“In the opinion of this Court, the plaintiffs would be entitled to the relief they seek in this application, on account of not only that these Google Forms are being posted by imposters in order to elicit information relating to Starbucks franchise (which do not exist in India) as well as seeking private information and data from the general public, which cannot be countenanced,” the court said.

Counsel for Plaintiffs: Ms. Rima Majumdar and Ms. Shilpi Sinha, Advs

Counsel for Defendants: Ms. Chhavi Arora, Adv. for D-1; Mr. Vaibhav Gaggar, SPC with Mr. Kartikeya Asthana, GP with Mrs. Monika Lakhanpal Gaggar, Ms. Vasudata, Ms. Shefali Munde and Mr. Dhruv Mehta, Advs. for D-2; Mr. Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, CGSC, Mr. Srish Kumar Mishra, Mr. Alexander Mathai Paikaday and Mr. Krishnan V., Advs. for MEITY & DOT. Mr. Neel Mason, Mr. Vihan Dang, Mr. Ujjawal Bhargava and Ms. Pragya Jain, Advs. for D-4

Title: STARBUCKS CORPORATION & ANR. v. NATIONAL INTERNET EXCHANGE OF INDIA & ORS.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 92

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