‘Media houses not responsible for claims in ads’
The Delhi HC has held that newspapers and periodicals cannot be held responsible if there is a defect in a consumer product whose advertisements are printed in their pages, reports HT Correspondent.
The Delhi High Court has held that newspapers and periodicals cannot be held responsible if there is a defect in a consumer product whose advertisements are printed in their pages.
Justice Pradeep Nandrajog set aside the order of a lower court which had directed newspapers to issue a disclaimer saying that qualities of products advertised in their dailies are not guaranteed by the newspaper."We set aside the impugned judgment directing the appellant (newspaper organisations) to issue a caution along with each advertisement stating that features or qualities are not guaranteed by the newspaper," the court said.
In this case, Rajan Verma had purchased a mobile phone manufactured by Nokia which later turned out to be defective.
He approached a lower court seeking a compensation of Rs 3.27 lakh, after the company failed to rectify the fault in the mobile. He also sought direction to the newspapers from publishing advertisements pertaining to the Nokia's products as they were allegedly promoting false and misleading claims of the phone manufacturer.
The lower court directed the company to pay Rs 1.27 lakh to the complainant and directed the newspapers to issue a caution along with ads.
Media organisations approached the High Court, which has now struck down the lower court's direction to them to carry a disclaimer with advertisements.