Backlash as JS Vitamins targeted on competitor's Instagram – SmartCompany

Life Botanics posted the graphic to its Instagram this week. Emerging vitamin brand Life Botanics has taken aim at wellness giant JS Vitamins in a social media post that has received considerable backlash from the company and its loyal consumers. Life Botanics posted the graphic to its Instagram account showing its vitamin bottle alongside the JS Vitamin bottle, with a claim the pair have the same formula at a vastly different price. “Identical formulations without the premium price tag” reads the graphic, with the Life Botanics product labelled $24.95 while the JS Vitamins product is labelled $44.99. So is this allowed? Get business news first Sign up to SmartCompany’s daily newsletter By George Legal’s Joel Masterson says it the use of trademarks for comparative advertising is actually permitted under the Trademark Act — just look at Aldi advertisements, he says. “But, comparative advertising has to comply with the Australian Consumer Law which means it must not be misleading or deceptive — so that just means you can’t say anything in your comparative advertising that isn’t accurate,” Masterson explains. And that didn’t escape the attention of JS Vitamin founder and nutritionist Jessica Sepel, who commented on the Life Botanics post to take…
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