Delhi HC asks Google to suspend links by imposters for Starbucks franchise

Starbucks Corporation submitted it does not follow a franchise model in India but certain imposters were seeking information from the general public through 'Google Forms' about Starbucks franchise opportunities, which do not exist.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has asked Google to suspend links by "imposters" inviting applications from people for opening Starbucks franchise.

Justice Anish Dayal passed the order on a lawsuit by American coffee chain Starbucks Corporation which submitted it does not follow a franchise model in India but certain imposters were seeking information from the general public through 'Google Forms' about Starbucks franchise opportunities which do not exist.

The court said the plaintiff was entitled to relief as 'Google Forms' were being posted by imposters in order to elicit information, which was private, from the general public for a franchise which did not exist. It cannot be countenanced, the court said.

"Accordingly, defendant No.4 ((Google LLC) shall immediately suspend the following URLs (mentioned in the order) within a week from today," the court said recently in an interim order.

"It is directed that the plaintiff will be at liberty to file an affidavit before this Court listing out other URLs linking to Google Forms related to inviting information from the public for Starbucks franchise and also through written/email communication to defendant No.4. Defendant No.4 may accordingly suspend those URLs as well, which may be listed and filed by means of an affidavit before this Court and communicated to them," the court added.

The plaintiff, which filed the lawsuit against unauthorised use of its mark and logo, told the court that certain entities were posting 'Google Forms' seeking invitations for “Starbucks Franchise”.

The court noted that a perusal of the forms under the heading “StarBucks franchise” showed that one could apply there to get more information about taking franchise of Starbucks and the form even had a picture of a Starbucks storefront.

The court asked Google to provide the user details of the registrants of these Google Forms to the plaintiff within two weeks from today, subject to their own internal policy and regulation.

"In the opinion of this Court, the plaintiffs would be entitled to the relief they seek in this application, on account of not only that these Google Forms are being posted by imposters in order to elicit information relating to Starbucks franchise (which do not exist in India) as well as seeking private information and data from the general public, which cannot be countenanced," the court said.