Austrian beverage-maker Red Bull has won a legal battle to continue using the label “energy drink” for its highly caffeinated drinks in one of the fastest-growing markets for them.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday quashed an order by the Indian food regulator prohibiting the use of “energy drink” for beverages.
Red Bull had sued the regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, for banning the use of the label without issuing a warning notice, claiming it impacted its investment in India. The company said it had been using the label since 2002.
The dispute over two seemingly innocuous words pitted some of the world’s biggest drinks companies against the Indian regulator and raised questions about the marketing of highly caffeinated beverages in a $1.6bn market.
The regulator’s order, issued in June, to stop describing high-caffeine beverages as “energy drinks” affected major brands like Red Bull, Pepsi, Monster, and Reliance and faced severe criticism by the businesses, which feared the removal of the label could damage their brands.
However, it was only Red Bull that took the regulator to court.
The court agreed that the regulator had issued the order "without affording any opportunity” to the company to provide its views.
The regulator would appeal the ruling on public health grounds, an official with knowledge of the plan told Reuters.
Red Bull argued in its petition that the prohibition was imposed without a change to the underlying product standards.
The “abrupt prohibition”, the company claimed, “introduces substantial regulatory uncertainty and adversely affects” its existing and planned commercial investments in India. It was thus contrary, it added, to the country’s stated policy to facilitate “international trade, promote investment and provide greater certainty to businesses”.
The prohibition’s “effect is to bring the petitioner’s entire business to a standstill”, the company added.
The ruling comes amid an unprecedented food safety crackdown, with regulators forcing many local eateries and branded restaurants to suspend operations.
The retail market for energy drinks in India is estimated to be growing 12.6 per cent annually, faster than in the US and China, according to Euromonitor.
The boom follows Pepsi’s launch of the Sting energy drink in 2017.
Red Bull’s revenue in India grew to $130m in 2024, more than twice the figure four years earlier.
The growing popularity of “energy drinks” is sparking health concerns among regulators in many countries that worry that they contain significant amounts of caffeine, sugar and taurine, an amino acid, which research suggests can contribute to health issues including high blood pressure and heart ailments.
The UK is set to ban them for under-16s from April next year.
