CCPA, ASCI collaborate to enforce advertising guidelines, punish violations

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has requested that the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) pass on to its authority any ads that are non-compliant with its code and potentially violate the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Advertisements found in violation of ASCI codes will be dealt with appropriate action, the bodies informed in a statement.

"Any such case escalated by ASCI concerning misleading advertisements will be promptly addressed and handled in strict accordance with the Consumer Protection Act 2019 by the CCPA," the statement read.

"With similar objectives, CCPA and ASCI can work in complementary ways to ensure that any infringements are addressed effectively. New challenges are being created by digital advertising, and keeping pace demands a collaborative approach with like-minded bodies," said Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, DoCA (Department of Consumer Affairs).

DoCA and ASCI also recently held joint consultations and collaborations on several advertising issues such as influencer guidelines, greenwashing, dark patterns, and surrogate advertising.

Early last year, ASCI issued draft advertising guidelines for the education sector to ensure that students are neither stereotyped based on their gender or appearance nor are those who score low portrayed as unsuccessful or failures.

The guidelines also called for commercials to avoid any depiction of students forsaking sleep or food in order to study, and that a student's health must be taken into consideration while creating the advertisement.