‘Selectively discriminated against and unfairly excluded’: Calcutta HC on IndiaMART’s suit against OpenAI

OpenAI, a leading business-to-business (B2B) online platform, has taken it to the Calcutta High Court, alleging that ChatGPT unlawfully excluded its website and listings from search results. IndiaMART claims that the boycott has caused significant reputational and business damage.

It argues that OpenAI discriminated against it by preventing it from being shown or appearing in AI-generated responses, while other e-commerce and B2B platforms continued to appear.

On December 24, Justice Ravi Krishna Kapoor, while hearing this case, said this Indiamart

had established a strong prima facie case against OpenAI, acknowledging that a continued boycott could cause commercial harm.

The court noted that Indiamart “Selectively discriminated against and unfairly excluded without any rationale”, resulting in loss of goodwill, reputation and business.

IndiaMART, which operates in more than 40 countries with thousands of employees, argues that OpenAI’s actions amount to “inherent disparagement, dilution of its trademarks, defamatory trade through harmful falsehood and unfair competition”.

The company claims that OpenAI relied on reports from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which named IndiaMART, to justify the boycott. However, Indiamart The USTR report never provided notice or opportunity to respond to these allegations.

Interestingly, other entities named in similar reports for counterfeiting and piracy, such as DHCP and Pinduoduo, continue to appear in ChatGPT responses, raising concerns about selective treatment.

However, Justice Kapoor refused to grant any interim relief saying that such an order would effectively amount to final relief without hearing the defendant. The court has directed IndiaMART’s counsel to provide the new service to OpenAI – which despite offering the service, remained unavailable.

The next hearing of the case will be on January 13, 2026.