Honda serves notice to Maruti Suzuki

Honda Siel Cars, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Company, has served a legal notice on Maruti Suzuki, a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corp, over a recent advertisement.

The notice was served on 13 January by Honda's by Honda's lawyer Ajit K Singh.

The advertisement by Maruti claims that its SX4 sedan is bigger than the Honda's segment leader City and loaded with more features. The comparison relates to height and length of the new Honda City as well as the 'absence' of integrated stereo systems.

'The comparison drawn in the advertisement and published in the newspaper as 'SX4 bigger than expensive City' itself (is) bad and the same cannot be sustained in law as well as well as facts. The above unfair method and deceptive practice of promoting the product by you is illegal,' the notice said.

The Maruti ad claims that City's entry-level model does not have an integrated stereo as standard equipment and that the car is shorter and smaller in size compared with the SX4.

The advertisement, Honda alleges, makes inaccurate, incomplete and distorted statements with an intention to mislead customers that amounts to unfair trade practice. Honda alleges that the ad is an attempt to discredit the new City, launched in November last year.

Asking MSI to withdraw the advertisement immediately, HSCI's notice demanded an apology from the country's largest carmaker, failing which it said it would initiate legal proceedings.