Shark Tank India Faces Legal Trouble As Startup Founder Accuses Show Of Blocking Marketing Efforts

Reality show 'Shark Tank India' has again found itself embroiled in controversy amid fresh allegations of wrongly targeting a startup for trademark violations. Fit & Flex founder, Pathik Patel, took to LinkedIn to vent his frustration, expressing the ordeal his company has faced following their appearance on the show.

Patel has reportedly sent a legal notice to Sony Entertainment Television for blocking their ad account.

Earlier, the show has been panned over the allegedly aggressive demeanor of some 'Sharks' as well as concerns over unmet investment pledges and ethical questions. The show has also been criticised for its limited diversity and emphasis on businesses that prioritise scalability.

In a post, Patel wrote, "Feels really sad to see this, but wasn’t left with a choice either! It has been 50 days of zero D2C business and all we get to hear is 'We won’t do anything'".

Fit & Flex, which featured on Shark Tank India Season 3, has alleged the channel targeted them unfairly for trademark violations without prior notice. Patel disclosed that Sony took drastic actions such as blocking their advertising account, unpublishing their Facebook page, and disabling collaboration features on social media accounts.

Patel said despite his company's compliance with guidelines that allowed them to use show clips for promotional purposes for three months post-airing, their content was allegedly removed within 25 days.

"We have been writing to both Meta and Sony daily since, to help us with a solution, but haven’t received any resolution," Patel said, highlighting the frustration over the lack of response from either Sony or the 'Shark Tank' legal team.

The incident has sparked wider concern among startup brands, with Patel claiming that over 70 brands are facing similar challenges post their appearances on the show. Patel rued that the fallout has been significant for his company, alleging business losses and setbacks following what was meant to be a milestone opportunity on national television.

"While we were shown a bigger picture of getting up to 5X & 7X of growth, the Shark Tank experience has in fact got us huge loss in business and a downfall of almost 10-12X. As the founder of Fit and Flex, I've poured my heart and soul into building our brand from the ground up, and this is extremely disheartening to see that massive media houses are harassing startup brands," he said.