Govt releases draft guidelines on advertising

The ministry of consumer affairs has come out with a set of draft guidelines on advertising under which ‘disclaimers’ that are not easily noticeable by or legible or easily understandable to an ordinary consumer will be treated as misleading advertisements under the Consumer Protection Act.

The ministry has sought public comments on the draft Central Consumer Protection Authority (Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Necessary Due Diligence for Endorsement of Advertisements) Guidelines, 2020, by September 18.

The guidelines are applicable to companies whose products or services are advertised as well as to advertisement agencies and endorsers. The violation of these guidelines would face action by the recently established Central Consumer Protection Authority.

Central Consumer Protection Authority

Under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) is empowered to issue necessary guidelines to prevent unfair trade practices and protect consumers’ interest. 

The CCPA was established under the Section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

The objective of the CCPA is to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class. 

It is empowered to conduct investigations into violation of consumer rights and institute complaints/prosecution, order recall of unsafe goods and services, order discontinuation of unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements, impose penalties on manufacturers/endorsers/publishers of misleading advertisements.

Highlights of the draft guidelines

• A disclaimer should be clear, prominent enough and legible. It should be clearly visible to a normally-sighted person reading the marketing communication once, from a reasonable distance and at a reasonable speed.

• A disclaimer should not attempt to hide material information with respect to the claim, the omission/ absence of which is likely to make the advertisement deceptive or conceal its commercial intent.

• An advertisement should not describe a product or service as free, without charge or other similar terms, if the consumer has to pay anything other than the cost while purchasing a product or service for delivery of the same.

• Those who endorse advertisements should take due care to ensure that all descriptions, claims and comparisons that they endorse or that are made in advertisements they appear in are capable of being objectively ascertained and are capable of substantiation.

• If an endorsement of a product or service is made through a testimonial, the guidelines propose that such endorsement should reflect the genuine, reasonably current opinion of the endorser, and should be based on either adequate information about or experience with the product or service being endorsed.

• Advertisements for goods or services whose advertising is otherwise prohibited or restricted by law shall not circumvent such restrictions by purporting to be advertisements for other goods or services, the advertising of which is not prohibited or restricted by law.

• An advertisement shall not seek to entice consumers to purchase a good or service without a reasonable prospect of selling the advertised good or service at the price offered.

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