Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha yesterday informed that as per rules the government has notified Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022 on June 9, 2022.

The objective: to curb misleading advertisements and protect the consumers, who may be exploited or affected by such advertisements.

According to these guidelines, an endorser includes an individual or a group or an institution making endorsement of any goods, product or service in an advertisement whose opinion, belief, finding or experience being the message which such advertisement appears to reflect, according to an official statement.

These guidelines state that due diligence is required for endorsement of advertisements so any endorsement in an advertisement must reflect the genuine, reasonably current opinion of the individual, group or organisation making such representation and must be based on adequate information about, or experience with, the identified goods, product or service and must not otherwise be deceptive.

The rules clarify that where Indian professionals, whether resident in India or otherwise, are barred under any law for the time being in force from making endorsement in any advertisement pertaining to any profession.

In case of false or misleading advertisement, as per section 21(2) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, CCPA may impose fines on manufacturer or endorser upto Rs. 10 lakhs or Rs 50 lakhs in case of repeated violations.