Celebs Liable For Misleading Ads: Govt Rolls Out New, Stringent Norms For Celebrity Endorsements

Violation of these guidelines will attract a penalty of ₹ 10 lakh for the first offence and ₹ 50 lakh for a subsequent offence under the Consumer Protection Act.

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New Delhi: The Centre has introduced new and stricter norms for endorsers, including celebrities and sports personalities requiring them to make material connection disclosure and due diligence while endorsing in advertisements, reported news agency PTI. 

As per the new guidelines issued by the Consumer Affairs Ministry on Friday endorsements must reflect endorsers' honest opinions, beliefs or experiences.

Under the Consumer Protection Act, endorsers will now have to make material connection disclosures and failing to do so will attract penalty under the Act. 

Material disclosures mean any relationship that materially affects the weight or credibility of any endorsement that a reasonable consumer would not expect.

"If there exists a connection between the endorser and the trader, manufacturer or advertiser of the endorsed product that might materially affect the value or credibility of the endorsement and the connection is not reasonably expected by the audience, such connection shall be fully disclosed in making the endorsement," the guidelines said, as reported by the news agency. 

Violation of these guidelines will attract a penalty of ₹ 10 lakh for the first offence and ₹ 50 lakh for a subsequent offence under the Consumer Protection Act.

The new guidelines 'Prevention of misleading advertisements and necessary due diligence for endorsement of advertisements', which came into effect from June 10, 2022, have been issued to prevent misleading advertisements, as per the report. 

The new guidelines provide various criteria for an advertisement to be considered valid and non-misleading and give clarity on bait advertisements, surrogate advertisements and free claims advertisements.