NEW DELHI: The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has issued notices to 13 companies, including major alcohol, tobacco and paan masala makers, for resorting to surrogate advertising.
Surrogate advertising is a deceptive practice where a company promotes products that are banned from direct advertising by promoting other products under the same brand name from the same company. Union consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said on Tuesday that the CCPA is drafting comprehensive guidelines to regulate the problem.
“The companies have given their response and as expected they have claimed that there was no surrogate advertising. Their responses are under examination. There are indications of interlink of their businesses. We are looking into the issue before initiating action,” said a source. Officials said the guidelines to deal with the menace will be notified next month.
The consumer affairs department will also release guidelines in January to tackle unsolicited commercial communications or pesky calls. While the telecom regulator, TRAI, has enforced norms which ensure registered telecallers are identified, people have been receiving numerous spam calls from unregistered entities.
Consumer affairs secretary Nidhi Khare said the department has prepared draft guidelines for dealing with pesky calls in consultation with stakeholders, which will be harmonised with upcoming regulations of the telecom department. “We will issue it next month. We were waiting for the rules of the telecom department,” Khare said on the sidelines of a National Consumer Day event.
TRAI chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti, who was also at the event, said the consumer affairs ministry is focusing on guidelines for business entities’ roles, responsibilities and conduct, while the telecom regulator will separately introduce stricter norms in response to growing consumer complaints.
On the occasion of the National Consumer Day, Joshi launched several initiatives to strengthen consumer protection, including artificial intelligence-enabled helpline and tools to detect deceptive marketing practices.
Safety Pledge by E-commerce Firms
Thirteen major e-commerce platforms, including Reliance Retail, Tata Sons and Zomato signed safety pledges for detecting and preventing the sale of unsafe, spurious and non-conforming products, cooperating with statutory authorities responsible for product safety, raising consumer product safety awareness among sellers and empowering consumers on product.
