Kent RO refused to modify its 'purest water' tagline after ASCI — and got a court stay

Kent RO Systems, holder of roughly 40% of India's RO water-purifier segment, had used the Hindi tagline 'Kent deta hai sabse shudh paani' ('Kent gives the purest water') since around 2007. In 2023 competitor TTK Prestige filed a complaint with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), arguing the superlative claim did not comply with the advertising code.

ASCI's Consumer Complaints Council agreed: in an order dated 29 December 2023 it found the claim was not substantiated with verifiable comparative data, was misleading by exaggeration and was likely to lead to widespread consumer disappointment, and recommended Kent modify the advertisement. Kent contested the ruling, arguing the tagline was brand puffery used for 16 years, not a product-specific factual claim.

Instead of modifying the tagline, Kent sued ASCI in the Delhi High Court. In January 2024 Justice Prathiba M. Singh stayed the ASCI order, observing that advertising is commercial speech under Article 19(1)(a), that 'exaggerations, puffery, hyperbole is part of advertising which cannot be completely curtailed, except in accordance with law', and that the complaint came from a competitor, not a misled consumer — raising a prima facie question about ASCI's jurisdiction in competitive advertising.

The episode was the second time Kent's core purity claim drew regulatory fire — in 2020 it had quietly withdrawn a purifier claim after ASCI asked it to substantiate a suggestion the product could address COVID-19 — and it landed just as the company was preparing its January 2025 DRHP filing for an IPO.

ASCI's 29 Dec 2023 order to modify a tagline built over 16 years of brand equity; litigation and reputational exposure landing in the middle of Kent's IPO preparation

The purity master claim was the core of Kent's brand equity, so conceding it to ASCI was costlier than litigation

Kent framed the tagline as puffery rather than a comparative factual claim, a defence the court found prima facie persuasive

The complaint originated from competitor TTK Prestige, letting Kent argue regulator jurisdiction was being used as a competitive weapon

Kent chose to fight this claim in court while having quietly withdrawn the weaker COVID-era claim in 2020 — a calculated split between defensible and indefensible claims

A superlative master claim is an asset you may have to defend in court — but competitor-driven complaints and puffery doctrine give advertisers more room than regulators suggest.

The interim stay let Kent keep using the tagline while the suit proceeded. The company filed its DRHP with SEBI in January 2025, disclosing FY24 revenue of Rs 1,178 crore, and continues to market 'sabse shudh paani'. The case became a cited precedent in Indian advertising law on the limits of ASCI's reach over puffery and competitor-filed complaints.