The Competition Appellate Tribunal has upheld a decision by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) against a big company for using misleading marketing strategies. They have fined the company Rs 5 million.
On Monday, the Tribunal said no to the appeal from Proctor and Gamble Pakistan (P&G) to change the CCP’s decision. They also said that the CCP has the power to check if a complaint is true and decide what to do about it.
First, the CCP fined P&G Rs 10 million for wrongly saying its product Safeguard is the best antibacterial soap in Pakistan. But the Tribunal lowered the fine to Rs 5 million because P&G helped during the investigation and stopped calling Safeguard the best after the CCP started looking into it in 2014.
The CCP started looking into this because Reckitt Benckiser Pakistan Limited complained that P&G’s Safeguard ads were not true.
The CCP found that P&G’s ads broke Section 10 of the Competition Act because they made people think Safeguard was the best antibacterial soap in Pakistan without enough proof.
Also, saying Safeguard is “Pakistan’s No 1 rated Anti-bacterial Soap” in ads without a clear warning breaks Section 10 of the Competition Act. After the investigation, Proctor & Gamble Pakistan got a notice to explain themselves.
