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2. Three of the present appeals i.e. FAO (OS) 133/2019, 134/2019 and 135/2019 are by Amazon Seller Services Private Limited (‗Amazon') against Amway India Enterprises Private Limited (‗Amway'), Oriflame India Private Limited (‗Oriflame') and Modicare Limited (‗Modicare'), respectively. Two of the appeals, FAO (OS) 141/2019 and 142/2019 are by Cloudtail India Private Limited (‗Cloudtail') against Amway and Oriflame respectively. The sixth appeal i.e. FAO (OS) 157/2019 is by Snapdeal Private Limited (‗Snapdeal') against Amway.

32. The third appeal by Amazon, i.e. FAO (OS) 135/2019, arises from CS (OS) 75/2019 filed by Modicare which also claims to be a DSE governed by the DSGs. This suit was filed against Amazon (Defendant No. 1) and two other sellers on Amazon's platform i.e. Laxmi Enterprises (Defendant No. 2) and Modicare DP Store (Defendant No. 3). On 5th February, 2019, an order was passed in the said suit by the learned Single Judge granting interim injunction on the same lines as the order dated 26 th September, 2018 in CS (OS) 480/2018 filed by Amway.

The Impugned Judgment

36. At this stage, it requires to be noticed that the impugned judgment of the learned Single Judge was passed in seven suits, five of which, i.e. CS (OS) 410/2018, 453/2018, 480/2018, 531/2018 and 550/2018, were filed by Amway and one each, CS (OS) 75/2019 and 91/2019, were filed by Modicare and Oriflame respectively.

37. It also requires to be noted here that Union of India was not made a party in any of the suits. However, when the Oriflame Suit CS (OS) 91/2019 was first listed on 13th February, 2019, the learned Single Judge issued notice to the learned ASG in order to elicit the stand of Union of India in respect of the legality and validity of the DSGs, and listed the matter for the following day i.e. 14th February, 2019 on which date an order was passed which has been referred to hereinbefore. The impugned judgment reflects that apart from all other counsel for the private parties, the learned ASG was also heard by the learned Single Judge.

909.

42. The learned Single Judge also distinguished the decisions in G.J. Fernandez v. State of Mysore AIR 1967 SC 1753, Syndicate Bank v. Ramachandran Pillai (2011) 15 SCC 398 and the decision dated 23rd April, 2019 of the Bombay High Court in Commercial Suit IP No.114/2018 (Tips Industries v. Wynk Music Limited) in their applicability to the case at hand.

43. On the second question of whether the sale of the Plaintiffs' products by the Defendants violated the Plaintiffs' trademark rights, the learned Single Judge opened the discussion by observing in para 175 of the impugned judgment that the Plaintiffs in each of the suits i.e Amway, Modicare and Oriflame ―are the owners of their respective trademarks.‖ The Defendants were found guilty of infringing the above trademarks and diluting it and passing off as their own misrepresenting their association with Amway, Oriflame and Modicare. It was concluded that the principles of exhaustion in terms of Section 30 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (‗TM Act') did not exempt the Defendants from liability thereunder and the manner of sale on the e- commerce platforms also constituted passing off, misrepresentation and dilution/tarnishment of the products and business of the Plaintiffs.