A week after Snapdeal’s technology solutions arm Unicommerce eSolutions said that Paytm has withdrawn the data misuse case filed against the former, Paytm Ecommerce COO Amit Sinha has told VCCircle that the company will take legal action against Unicommerce.
Last week Unicommerce said that Paytm had withdrawn the case as it failed to provide proof to support its allegations of data misuse.
To this, Amit clarified that the case was filed by Paytm before its division. And since ‘Paytm’ is no longer in the business of ecommerce, it withdrew the case. Paytm Mall will now follow up on the matter.
Paytm Ecommerce runs Paytm Mall, which One97 Communications created last year as a standalone ecommerce entity, hence separating its ecommerce and digital payments businesses.
Background to the case
Paytm filed a lawsuit against Unicommerce in the Delhi High Court in April 2016 accusing it of accessing confidential business data on Paytm’s commerce platform via the sellers on the platform. It also alleged that Unicommerce was using Paytm’s logo and name without authorization.
The issue here is that it is projected that Unicommerce platform allows Paytm as an option for merchants, which is not true. The legal recourse, Amit says, is to ensure this doesn’t happen.
Sellers use Unicommerce as a platform to manage orders and inventory across different marketplaces and carts.
In fact, in a blog post, Paytm warned sellers transacting on its platform that using Unicommerce was prohibited and that if they were found using Unicommerce services, strict action could be taken including but not limited to imposing penalties or blocking the concerned partner entirely.
The Delhi HC then issued an order on April 21 that while the senior counsel for the defendant (Unicommerce) states that the defendant stopped using the Paytm trademark/logo on its website/portal, it shall remain bound by this statement and shall not use the trademark i.e. the logo of the plaintiff on its website. It also instructed Unicommerce to pull down the YouTube videos where the Paytm logo was being used.
The order also said that Unicommerce shall not access the information derived on behalf of the sellers who are registered with Paytm and shall not use the said data for itself.