HC Orders Gaurav Taneja To Take Down Two Videos; Here's Why

YouTuber and fitness influencer Gaurav Taneja has been making headlines with his legal controversy. Now, the Bombay High Court has directed Gaurav to remove two videos from his YouTube channel that were infringing Castrol India Ltd's copyrights. The videos were shot during Castrol's promotional campaign in the United States, but Taneja neither credited the company nor promoted the campaign in them, Justice Riyaz Chagla observed while granting interim relief to the firm.

Gaurav Taneja In Legal Controversy:

According to the petition, in April 2024, the company undertook a campaign titled ‘Castronomy', wherein video bloggers were commissioned to capture zero-gravity flight experiences in the United States. Castrol India bore the travel, accommodation, and participation costs for bloggers, instead of which they were required to produce content promoting the campaign and the company.

Photo Credit: Instagram

About the Case:

Taneja traveled to the US and participated in the campaign with American YouTuber Eric Decker in May, shooting videos and photographs of the event over three days, Castrol India stated in the petition. On October 29 and November 1, he uploaded two videos on his YouTube channel titled ‘Ready to go in Zero Gravity with @airrack' and ‘Flying in zero gravity' respectively but did not give any credit to Castrol or promote the ‘Castronomy' campaign, the company alleged.

Castrol India made several requests to Taneja to remove the videos from his YouTube channel and even offered him ₹5 lakh to take down the content, but to no avail, the company said in the petition, seeking removal of the videos and photos from his social media accounts.

In the order dated December 4, Justice Chagla observed that prima facie, Castrol appeared to be the producer of the content and the first owner of the copyright, and Taneja unauthorisedly uploaded and leveraged the content on his social media accounts.