A major legal ruling in India has clarified that duty-free shops located within international airports are not exempt from the country's domestic laws. This decision, handed down by the Mumbai High Court, poses a significant setback for the Adani Group, which had argued that its airport retail spaces—situated beyond standard customs barriers—should operate outside the reach of local regulations. The dispute centered on the sale of nicotine pouches, products that Indian authorities categorize as unapproved drugs and a substantial public health threat, despite the company’s insistence that they were merely modern, unregulated innovations.

The Adani Group, which oversees eight major airports across India as part of an expansive $11 billion infrastructure project, maintained that their duty-free outlets functioned outside of India’s territorial jurisdiction. However, the court firmly rejected this stance, asserting that any goods brought into these retail areas remain subject to the full force of the national regulatory regime. While the court did not make a definitive ruling on whether the specific nicotine products qualify as drugs, it directed the conglomerate to present its arguments to national health regulators, who will now have the final say on the matter based on its individual merits.