The Delhi High Court refused to let PepsiCo use the "energy drink" label on its products after the FSSAI banned the term in June. PepsiCo lawyer Sandeep Sethi said, "There will be no goods in the market after a couple of months." The next court hearing is October 30.
The remarks came as the Delhi High Court again refused to let PepsiCo resume making drinks carrying the prized label, barred by the regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
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"There will be no goods in the market after a couple of months," PepsiCo's lawyer, Sandeep Sethi, told the court. "My competitors are able to manufacture."
The case is a test of how far the food safety regulator can go in policing product labels in India's rapidly growing energy-drink market, built largely on PepsiCo's .
In June, the regulator ordered makers of high-caffeine drinks to drop the term "energy drink", amid growing concerns about the health risk of such products.
'HAVOC IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM'
Energy drinks boomed in India after PepsiCo launched Sting in 2017, with its 20-rupee ($0.21) plastic bottles proving popular among 15- to 19-year-olds and in rural areas, Euromonitor says.
PepsiCo also sells its energy drink Adrenaline Rush in the market.
Starting over was "a long cumbersome process", Sethi told the court, with the company's cans already bought and printed.
"That will play havoc with our entire distribution system," he added.
The court has yet to rule on the merits of the ban, with the next hearing in the case set for October 30.
Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
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Based in Bengaluru, Munsif Vengattil leads Reuters' technology news coverage in India. He tracks themes at the intersection of tech, business, and labor. A reporter for nine years, Munsif has written extensively on India's electronics manufacturing aspirations and its tech policy space, AI and election interference, satellite internet, streaming wars, and data breaches. His stories also focus on investigating corporate strategies and revealing India-specific initiatives and challenges of the biggest of tech firms - from Apple, Facebook, and Google, to Foxconn, Samsung, and Nvidia.