Hearing a petition filed by Hyundai Motors India Ltd against a particular sales campaign by Maruti Udyog Ltd, a MRTPC bench headed by Justice O P Dwivedi asked the car market leader to file its reply on whether it had discontinued the advertisement or not.
The commission observed that although it had not given any stay following the complaint filed by Hyundai, the parties should themselves stop targeting each other. During the proceedings, HMIL's counsel said that MUL's campaign still continued, though in different forms.
Meanwhile, in its rejoinder against the reply filed by Maruti late last month, HMIL contended that the manner of representation of its products in the advertisement was not correct.
It also alleged that the technical objection raised by MUL in the advertisement against HMIL's product were not merit based. The country's top two carmakers came face-to-face after HMIL challenged the sales pitch of Maruti in an advertisement campaign, saying it was "misleading and disparaging".
In the advertisement, published in August in some English dailies, MUL had compared its own cars with other carmakers, including Hyundai, and claimed that resale value and mileage were higher while the maintenance cost was lower for its models as against those of its rivals.