MRTPC to Bharatmatrimony: Stop success ads

Helping arrange marriages is fine, but advertising about it is not.

That's the message from India's anti-monopoly watchdog, Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC), to matrimony website Bharatmatrimony.com.

The website has advertised through newspapers that it had eight times more success stories than its nearest rival, which was objected to by competitor Shaadi.com.

"It is a fit case that the respondent (Bharatmatrimony) is restrained from making claims through press/insertion in its website or by any other manner of its success stories," MRTPC member M K Sardana said passing an order on a petition filed by Shaadi.com.

According to Mumbai-based People Interactive, which runs Shaadi.com, though Bharatmatrimony.com did not mention its name, it was implied.

Agreeing with the petitioner, MRTPC said: "Petitioner has made a prima facie case that the claim made by respondent... is false and misrepresenting and disparaging to complainant."

The commission also issued a notice of enquiry over such advertisements in some newspapers and directed the portal to file a reply in four weeks.

On Bharatmatrimony's claim that it has entered into the Limca Book of Records, MRTPC said: "Record certification only refers to the documented marriages whereas the website claims that the record has been certified... for the highest number of marriages. Thus, there is a distortion."