Celebrities may face fines for misleading advertisements
The Indian Government announced an important news recently about endorsing brands in misleading advertisements. According to the news, the Indian celebrities who endorse brands in misleading advertisements or back products will be obliged to pay hefty fines for these advertisements. The celebrities will not have to face imprisonment but they will be obliged to pay hefty fines.
The celebrities will be obliged to pay hefty fines and it has been confirmed in the recent meeting of the ministerial group of India. The ministerial group held a meeting on Monday and the meeting was headed by the Finance Minister of India. Among the Ministerial group, the Finance Minister, the Law Minister, the Transport Minister, the Consumer Affairs Minister, the Health Minister, the Power Minister and the Commerce Minister of India was involved in the meeting. The decision of forcing celebrities to pay fines rather than facing imprisonment emerged from the ministerial meeting.
Earlier the consumer affairs ministry of India urged that the celebrities should face imprisonment for doing misleading advertisements. The decision of the consumer affairs ministry was also recommended by a Parliamentary Committee of India.
But some senior ministers of India protested against such decision as they thought that the decision would be very harsh on the celebrities. The senior ministers of India suggested an alternative view on the decision. The ministers suggested that an exemplary amount of financial penalty must be taken from the celebrities for promoting misleading advertisements. It was cited in the meeting that that an amount of Rs. 1 crore will be taken as an exemplary penalty from the celebrities.
Details about Consumer Protection Act
The Indian Government is making plans to shield Consumer Protection Act. Below we will know the details about Consumer Protection Act.
| Year | Event |
| 1986 | Consumer Protection Act was introduced. |
| 1991 | Consumer Protection Act was amended. |
| 1993 | Consumer Protection Act was amended for the 2nd time. |
| 2002 | Consumer Protection was amended for the 3rd time. |
| 2015 | Consumer Protection Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha. |
| 2016 | Parliamentary Standing Committee submitted their recommendations about the Consumer Protection Bill. |
| 2016 | Ministerial Group of India suggested several decisions to shield Consumer Protection Act |
The informal ministerial group of India separated the products into three broad categories which are: General, Food and Medicine. They formulated the amount of penalty for each of the categories. Also, the ministerial group discussed about another option and which is that the celebrities will be obliged to conduct due diligence before endorsing a product.
The issue of forcing celebrities to pay fine cropped up last year when a noodles company was banned by the food regulator because it contained excessive lead. The endorsers of that noodles company had to come under scrutiny. Later the captain of Indian cricket team had to break his ties with a real estate company because the real estate company made fake promises to a lot of people.
Another Meeting of Ministerial Group
The Ministerial group of India will meet again before they make their final recommendations. The Ministerial group of India has already requested the consumer affairs ministry to take required measures so that they will be able to deal with these situations.
The issue of countering misleading advertisements was referred to the ministerial group after the Parliamentary Committee provided their recommendations about the Consumer Protection Bill.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee urged for strict provisions for countering misleading advertisements and they urged that the celebrities should also be considered liable for endorsements.
Suggestions of Parliamentary Standing Committee
The Parliamentary Standing Committee recommended that if an offender is offended for the 1st time, they will be penalized with either a penalty of Rs 10 lakh or imprisonment of more than two years or both.
The committee recommended that if an offender is offended for the second time, they will be penalized with either a fine of Rs 50 lakh or imprisonment of five years.
The committee also mentioned the rules if any offender commits subsequence offences. If an offender commits more than two offences the penalties will be increased based on the value of sales volumes of their endorsed products.
But the suggestion of imprisonment for the first offence itself was way too severe according to a lot of pundits. The celebrities have little knowledge about their endorsed product and the punishment of imprisonment is actually too severe. Thus the senior ministers urged against the recommendation of imprisonment.
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