By Arpan Chaturvedi and Munsif Vengattil
BENGALURU, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has sued India’s food regulator for barring it from marketing its Campa-brand products as “energy drinks”, non-public court filings show, the latest beverage maker to challenge the labelling crackdown.
The writ petition, dated October 1 and reviewed by Reuters, targets 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 regulator last week over the ban, while Austria’s Red Bull secured a court reprieve to continue using the label.
The 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.
State authorities have seized Reliance stock and ordered e-commerce platforms to delist the products, according to the petition, which seeks to have the regulator’s order quashed.
“Such actions have caused and are causing substantial disruption to the Petitioner’s business operations and adversely affect its market presence and commercial goodwill,” Reliance Consumer Products Ltd, the beverages arm of Reliance, said in the filing.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (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% annually, outstripping growth in the U.S. and China, according to Euromonitor.
(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Munsif Vengattil; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Shri Navaratnam)
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