The government is planning to set up an agency under the ministry of consumer affairs to probe consumer complaints against misleading and surrogate advertisements, food and consumer affairs minister K V Thomas said, pitching for early redressal of such problems.
?The problem of misleading ads is getting worse by the day, especially at regional levels. The idea behind setting up the agency is to speed up the justice delivery system. We want to ensure that people are not duped by such advertisements as soon as possible,? said Thomas.
The agency will comprise experts from diverse fields to review claims made by such companies in their ads, and once probed by the agency, the findings will be submitted with the consumers’ court for appropriate action, official sources said. At present, there isn’t a proper mechanism to ensure accountability of companies making promises through such advertisements. In August, the ministry formed an inter-ministerial panel on how to tackle the issue, and in September, the PMO, too, directed the ministry to prepare a broad regulatory framework to curb such advertisements.
Thomas, who met representatives of the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) on Monday as part of the initiatives to check misleading ads, said his ministry is also considering a new piece of legislation and a more co-ordinated approach among various departments concerned to curb such ads.
?The feedback from the ASCI is also positive and they are not opposing strict vigil of such ads,? Thomas said. Currently, there are laws under different ministries, such as the ministries of food processing, health and information and broadcasting, to deal with misleading ads separately. Moreover, the content of advertisements broadcast on television and radio and published in the print media is regulated by private bodies such as the ASCI and News Broadcasting Association.