Instead of jail term, celebrities endorsing misleading ads will have to pay penalty of up to Rs 50 lakh and serve a ban of up to three years once the new Consumer Protection Bill is cleared by Parliament
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Instead of jail term, celebrities endorsing misleading ads will have to pay penalty of up to Rs 50 lakh and serve a ban of up to three years once the new Consumer Protection Bill is cleared by Parliament. The Consumer Protection Bill, 2018 was introduced by Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in the Lok Sabha and it seeks to replace the 31-year-old law. One of the major objectives of the bill is to crackdown on misleading advertisements.
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If the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), proposed to be set up under the bill, is satisfied that an advertisement is false or misleading, it may issue directions to endorsers, advertisers, publishers as well traders and manufacturers to discontinue or modify such an ad.
The CCPA will have the powers to impose penalty of up to R10 lakh on endorsers and manufacturers. For subsequent violation, the penalty will be up to Rs 50 lakh. The authority will also have the power ban endorser of misleading ads from endorsing any product for a period of one year, while subsequent violation will attract a ban of up to three years. However, no penalty will be imposed if publishers prove that the advertisement was published in the ordinary course of their business.
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