The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday, July 7, quashed a case against Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages for pricing Coca-Cola bottles MRPs at two different rates.

While quashing the case, the court noted that the law at the time of the case did not bar manufacturers from declaring different Maximum Retail Prices (MRPs) for the same product. The case pertains to a 2016 inspection. The case was registered after an inspection found that a 600 ml Coca-Cola bottle was priced at Rs 60 in Domino’s Pizza, Katra, while the same quantity of the beverage carried an MRP of Rs 35 in the open market.

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Coca-Cola then moved the High Court to quash this case. While hearing the case, justice Rajnesh Oswal held that, neither the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 nor the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, prohibited dual MRPs for identical pre-packaged commodities at the time of the inspection in 2016.

The amendment was introduced in 2017, but only came into force on January 1, 2018, the court pointed out, adding that the the prohibition on differential MRPs was introduced only through the insertion of Rule 18(2A).

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