Bengaluru court restores company Instagram account suspended over IPL posts

A Bengaluru court has ordered Meta India to restore a private company's Instagram account suspended due to posts promoting Indian Premier League (IPL) screenings at its resorts. The court found that the continued suspension was disproportionate to the alleged violation and did not find clear intellectual property infringement in the posts.

The case involved Qescapades Private Limited, which challenged the suspension of its Instagram account @qexperiences and its associated content, followers, messages, and business data. The dispute arose following promotional posts about watching IPL matches at the resort, which were removed by Instagram. The court acknowledged the right of Instagram to suspend the account if terms and policies were violated, but found that the posts did not clearly infringe IPL's trademark rights or promote unauthorized streaming.

The court ordered the restoration of the account, subject to the condition that Qescapades would not post any content violating Instagram's terms, conditions, policies, or guidelines.