Calcutta High Court sees strong case in IndiaMART plea against OpenAI

IndiaMART has moved the Calcutta High Court alleging that OpenAI unlawfully excluded the company’s website and listings from search results generated by ChatGPT, causing reputational and commercial damage, according to a report by Bar and Bench. The matter has been filed as IndiaMART InterMESH Limited versus OpenAI Inc and others.

The business-to-business online marketplace alleged that OpenAI selectively discriminated against it by preventing IndiaMART from being shown or surfaced in AI-generated responses, while rival e-commerce and B2B platforms continued to appear, as per the report.

The case was heard by Justice Ravi Krishan Kapur on December 24, when the Court observed that IndiaMART had made out a strong prima facie case and acknowledged that continued exclusion could result in commercial injury. The Court stated that it prima facie appeared that the petitioner was being selectively discriminated against and unjustifiably excluded without any apparent logic, leading to loss of goodwill, reputation and commercial harm.

However, Justice Kapur declined to grant interim relief at this stage, noting that such an order would effectively amount to granting final relief without hearing the respondents, who remained unrepresented despite service. The Court accordingly directed IndiaMART’s counsel to effect fresh service on OpenAI and listed the matter for further hearing on January 13.

In its suit, IndiaMART stated that it has a significant international presence, operating in more than 40 countries with thousands of employees, and that its trademark IndiaMART is recognised as a well-known mark under the Trade Marks Act, 1999.

According to the petition, the alleged exclusion amounted to trade libel through implied disparagement, dilution of its trademark, injurious falsehood and unfair competition, and that OpenAI’s conduct had caused loss of goodwill, reputation and business.

IndiaMART further alleged that OpenAI relied on reports prepared by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, in which the company had been named, to justify the exclusion. It stated that it was never given prior notice or an opportunity to respond to the allegations in the USTR report and claimed that OpenAI’s reliance on the report was arbitrary and without legal basis.

The company also pointed out that several other entities named in the same USTR reports for counterfeiting and piracy, including DHgate, Pinduoduo, Shopee and Taobao, continued to appear in ChatGPT responses, raising concerns over selective treatment.

Senior Advocates SN Mookherjee and Rudraman Bhattacharyya, along with Advocates Sourojit Dasgupta, SK Bajoria, Dhruv Chaddha, Gargi Vashistha, Siddhartha Banerjee and Akash Munshi, appeared for IndiaMART.