Questioning the validity of BPL's claim of having longest lasting alakline battery in the world, Duracell had approached the commission charging the company for indulging in restrictive and unfair trade practices.

Duracell had claimed that durability of its batteries was sufficiently long and even better than BPL's products and sought MRTPC's intervention in this regard.

The commission had directed both the companies to submit their products to an independent and internationally acclaimed laboratory at Sweden for evaluation, in accordance with international electrotechnical commission (IEC) and Japan Institute of Standards (JIS) parameters.

The test report of the Swedish laboratory said BPL's alkaline battery was not longer lasting than theproduct of Duracell, the MRTPC order said.

The MRTPC order said by claiming that its alkaline batteries were longer lasting than any other battery in the world, BPL was trying to project that its long lasting quality was superior to the batteries produced by Duracell.

"The test report of the Swedish laboratory thus clearly goes to show that BPL's battery is not longer lasting than that of Duracell in any respect. Its claim is clearly not justified in view of the test report," the order said.

The advertisement campaign would definitely remain stuck in the minds of people, it said adding no person has any right to mislead the public by misrepresenting the facts regarding the quality of any product.

"Because of such claims in advertisements, the choice of people in need of alkaline batteries is likely to be deflected," it said.

Duracell had filed the complaint saying BPL's advertisements were misleading and misrepresentation of facts ignoring the longer lasting character of alkaline batteriesmanufactured by it.