UNDERSTANDING ‘EXCLUSIVE ZONING’ IN INDIA | VALIDITY AND ENFORCEABILITY OF RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS UNDER INDIAN LAWS

Published On: 16/06/2023

Practice Area: Corporate & Commercial

Authors:

Apple Inc. (Apple) recently opened its first retail store in India in April 2023 at the Reliance World Drive mall. The lease agreement executed by Apple for leasing the premises includes a restrictive covenant prohibiting the brands competing with Apple from occupying any space for setting up of any retail stores for retailing, advertising, selling, offering, displaying and merchandising their products and services within Apple’s ‘exclusive zone’ in the mall. INDUSLAW’s Avimukt Dar, Harman Walia, Tanmaya Negi and Aman Gupta analyse the permissibility of such restrictive covenants across several jurisdictions and the validity and enforceability of such restrictive covenants in modern commercial contracts under the Indian Contract Act, 1872.