Question : MISLEADING ADVERTISEMENTS

(a) whether cases of misleading advertisements making false and exaggerated claims about the products in electronic and print media have risen in the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the number of such cases reported in the country during each of the last three years and the action taken by the Government in such cases against the companies;

(c) whether the Government have launched a dedicated portal for redressal of grievances against misleading advertisements, if so, the details and salient features thereof along with the extent to which it is likely to check misleading advertisements;

(d) the regulatory mechanism put in place by the Government to deal with misleading claims and advertisements made by the companies; and

(e) the other steps taken/proposed to stren- gthen consumer protection movement and create public awareness about misleading adverti- sements?

THE MINISTER OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI RAM VILAS PASWAN)

(a) & (b): Yes Madam, A large number of complaints of misleading advertisements appearing in the electronic and print media making false and exaggerated claims about products, are received by various agencies and regulators from time to time. There is no single centralised agency to deal with all such complaints. The sector regu- lator concerned /or the ministry/ department concerned takes cognizance of the complaints and takes action on matters relating to their own subjects under the relevant legislations.

(c) & (d): Yes Madam. The Department of Consumer Affairs has launched a portal for registering online complaints for Grievances Against Mis- leading Advertisements (GAMA) on 18th March, 2015.

The salient features of the portal are as follows:

# The portal is to function as a repository for complaints lodged by consumers throughout the country.

# Any citizen can register and login to the portal to lodge his / her grievances against misleading advertisements

# Complaints could be lodged on any misleading advertisement and proof of such complaints could also be uploaded to the website in the form of photographs, audio, and video.

# Focus will be on Six Key Sectors viz. Food & Agriculture, Health, Education, Real Estate, Transport and Financial Services.

# Regulators for each of these sectors will be key partners in the success of the effort to prevent the problem.

# State Governments, Voluntary Consumer Orga- nizations (VCOs), Grahak Suvidha Kendras, Advertisement Standards Council of India (ASCI), Indian Institute of Public Admini- stration (IIPA) and various Regulators of the Central Government are part of the system.

# An Inter-Ministerial Group has already been formed to take appropriate action on the comp- laints received.

As all the concerned agencies are involved in the matter, it will check the misleading adve- rtisements to great extent.

(e): Public awareness about misleading adver- tisements are made through advertisements in print and electronic media from time to time.