According to the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) order, the regulator has imposed a penalty of Rs150 million ($535,283) on Mezan Beverages (Private) Limited for engaging in deceptive marketing practices in relation to its “Storm” energy drink, following a complaint filed by PepsiCo.
The case dates back to 2018, when PepsiCo alleged that Mezan Beverages designed the Storm energy drink to imitate the packaging and trade dress of its Sting brand in order to benefit from PepsiCo’s established goodwill in Pakistan’s energy drinks market. The CCP noted that instead of responding to the allegations on merit, Mezan Beverages repeatedly challenged the Commission’s jurisdiction and initiated prolonged litigation.
According to the order, Mezan obtained stay orders from the Lahore High Court in 2018 and again in 2021, which delayed the inquiry for several years. In June 2024, the Lahore High Court dismissed Mezan’s petition, upheld the CCP’s authority to proceed, and ruled that early challenges to show-cause notices were not maintainable. The court observed that regulatory proceedings are independent of trademark disputes.
In its findings, the Competition Commission of Pakistan held that Mezan’s Storm energy drink adopted a red-dominant colour scheme, bold slanted white lettering, aggressive visual motifs, and a bottle shape and presentation closely resembling PepsiCo’s Sting. The Commission stated that these similarities were likely to mislead an ordinary consumer with imperfect recollection at the point of sale.
“The company was found to have imitated the packaging and trade dress of PepsiCo’s Sting energy drink, thereby engaging in deceptive marketing practices,” the CCP said. It added that the conduct amounted to parasitic copying and violated Section 10 of the Competition Act, 2010.
The Commission emphasised that deception is assessed based on overall commercial impression rather than minor differences examined side by side, and ruled that trademark registration did not provide immunity from action.