Plea in Delhi court alleges Zomato is misleading consumers with hot food delivery claim through Legends campaign

A Gurgaon resident has approached a Delhi court alleging that Zomato's Legends campaign, which claims that kebabs and other similar food items would be delivered hot from iconic restaurants in other cities, is misleading and false..Civil judge Umesh Kumar issued notice on the plea and listed the matter for hearing next on March 20..The class action suit for injunction and damages of ₹1,00,000 was moved by one Sourav Mall (plaintiff) alleging that Zomato' scheme was misleading. As per this scheme, Zomato claims that it will deliver hot food from iconic restaurants in different cities that will be flown into the city of the consumer..The plea highlighted that a blog post by Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal advertised the services under Zomato Legends as follows: "What if the food you crave from your beloved city could hop on a flight and reach you the very next day?"It also highlighted that the blog post claimed that the food would be freshly prepared by the restaurant..On October 14, 2023, the complainant had ordered food under the Dilli ke Legends service. When he tried to track the delivery partner, he found that the food was picked up from a third party location and not the restaurant. "That further it is pertinent to note here that the Plaintiff did not even receive the food in the original packaging of the restaurant partner, it came under the packaging of Zomato in a red box, with a mere note indicating the name of the restaurant partner and no other branding. This lack of original packaging adds to the dubiousness of the food delivered to the Plaintiff being authentic," the plea added.Further, the plaintiff claimed that the food was delivered cold despite the 'delivered hot' claim, and that even the delivery partner confirmed that the order was picked up and delivered from a warehouse in Gurgaon..The plaintiff claimed that this method of business without full and transparent disclosure is fraudulent and is inducing Zomato's customers to place orders on a false representation..Therefore, he sought directions to Zomato not to use the expression 'delivered hot' and instead use 'reheated and delivered hot' as the former has an entirely different connotation.Even otherwise, the objective of a consumer's contract with Zomato is that the defendant will deliver food to the plaintiff from the locations displayed on the platform and that the food delivered will be authentic, fresh and hot as emphasized.Hence, the plaintiff submitted that Zomato should provide all relevant information to consumers regarding how the food will be delivered within a short period within Delhi-NCR, how it is being reheated, why it is not packed in original packaging etc."By using deceptive expressions such as "delivered hot", "freshly prepared" and concealing the entire truth from the Plaintiff, when it is under a duty to reveal, Zomato is committing fraud," the suit said..The plaintiff also highlighted that probably out of apprehension that consumers were catching on, Zomato has briefly stopped the ability to track orders under Dilli ke Legends..Advocates Tishampati Sen, Anurag Anand and Biyanka Bhatia are representing the plaintiff.