Tag: advertisements

Industry Update – Guidelines for Coaching Sector

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Guidelines for “Prevention of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector” , 2024

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has introduced the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector, 2024, aimed at safeguarding students and the public from deceptive practices in the coaching industry.

These guidelines prohibit false claims about course offerings, success rates, or guarantees of results.

The guidelines will apply to every person engaged in coaching, meaning not just the coaching centers, but also any endorsers or public figures promoting their services through advertisements

Key provisions of the Guidelines include:

  • Transparency: Accurate representation of services, truthful use of student testimonials (only with post-success consent), and clear disclaimers in advertisements.
  • Accountability: Endorsers of coaching services must ensure the truthfulness of claims they promote.
  • Fair Practices: Ban on creating false urgency or unfair contracts and mandatory disclosures of fees, ranks, and course details in advertisements.
  • Grievance Redressal: Partnership with the National Consumer Helpline for student complaints.
  • Enforcement: Violations will be penalized under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

These guidelines are a crucial step in preventing the exploitation of students and ensuring that they are not misled by false promises or compelled into unfair contracts benefiting both consumers and the broader educational ecosystem.

These guidelines will be in addition to any existing regulations, enhancing the overall regulatory framework governing advertisements in the coaching sector

Click here to read the Guidelines

Source: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2073013

Announcement

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ASCI proposes various guidelines to avoid ‘greenwashing’ by companies

Advertising industry’s self-regulatory body ASCI has proposed various guidelines to avoid ‘greenwashing’ by companies.

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has come out with a 9-point draft in this regard.

ASCI said the guidelines are aimed to check greenwashing, which it defined as the deceptive practice of making misleading environmental claims.

Proposed guidelines aim to foster a culture of transparency and authenticity in advertising in consumer interest and help them make informed decisions.

Environmental claims can appear in advertisements, marketing material, branding (including business and trading names), on packaging or in other information provided to consumers

The proposed guidelines say any absolute claims like a product has no impact or only a positive impact needs to be supported by a high-level of substantiation.

Comparative claims such as “greener” or “friendlier” can be justified, for example, if the advertised product or service provides a total environmental benefit over that of the advertiser’s previous product or service or competitor products, it has been recommended.

The public consultation on the draft is open till December 31, 2023

Click here to read the Guidelines

Source: https://www.ascionline.in/

Notification

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Guidelines on Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022

The Central Consumer Protection authority (CCPA) under the Department of Consumer Affairs has notified ‘Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022’ with an objective to curb misleading advertisements and protect the consumers, who may be exploited or affected by such advertisements.

The guidelines seek to ensure that consumers are not being fooled with unsubstantiated claims, exaggerated promises, misinformation and false claims. Such advertisements violates various rights of consumers such as right to be informed, right to choose and right to be safeguarded against potentially unsafe products and services

Keeping in view the sensitiveness and vulnerability of children and severe impact advertisements make on the younger minds, several preemptive provisions have been laid down on advertisements targeting children. Guidelines says that advertisement targeting children shall not feature any personalities from the field of sports, music or cinema for products which under any law requires a health warning for such advertisement or cannot be purchased by children

Guidelines also stipulates that disclaimer shall not attempt to hide material information with respect to any claim made in such advertisement, the omission or absence of which is likely to make the advertisement deceptive or conceal its commercial intent and shall not attempt to correct a misleading claim made in an advertisement.

Similarly, clear Guidelines are laid for duties of manufacturer, service provider, advertiser and advertising agency, due diligence to be carried out before endorsing and others. Guidelines aims to protect consumer’s interest through bringing in more transparency and clarity in the way advertisements are being published, so that, consumers are able to make informed decisions based on facts rather than false narratives and exaggerations. 

Penalty for violating the Guidelines are also clearly outlined. CCPA can impose penalty of upto 10 lakh rupees on manufacturers, advertisers and endorsers for any misleading advertisements. For subsequent contraventions, CCPA may impose a penalty of upto 50 lakh rupees. The Authority can prohibit the endorser of a misleading advertisement from making any endorsement for upto 1 year and for subsequent contravention, prohibition can extend upto 3 years.

Click here to read Guidelines

Source: https://consumeraffairs.nic.in/en/latestnews/guidelines-prevention-misleading-advertisements-and-endorsements-misleading

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