Top brands face heat for deceptive Covid-19 advertisements, fined

Most firms have owned up to the cited violations under the Consumer Protection Act of 2019 after being issued 129 notices in all by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), including 71 for misleading advertisements

Several top brands have been fined a cumulative ₹30 lakh by India’s consumer rights watchdog for issuing “grossly misleading ads” that promised protection against Covid-19, among other violations, while promoting products as diverse as home paints and men’s shirts, an official said.

Several popular brands made outlandish claims related to Covid-19 protection, which boosted sales as hapless consumers panicked during waves of the pandemic, cases pursued by the rights authority show. (HT Photo)

Most firms have owned up to the cited violations under the Consumer Protection Act of 2019 after being issued 129 notices in all by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), including 71 for misleading advertisements.

“The companies took corrective action and deposited penalties ranging from ₹1 lakh to ₹10 lakh,” said Nidhi Khare, additional secretary in the consumer affairs ministry.

Several popular brands made outlandish claims related to Covid-19 protection, which boosted sales as hapless consumers panicked during waves of the pandemic, cases pursued by the rights authority show. The 129 notices included 49 cases of unfair trade practices and nine counts of consumer-rights violation, Khare said.

As many as 15 top companies were implicated, according to official documents. They includes Asian Paints, a home decor company that claimed its Royale Health Shield brand of paint was equipped with “silver nano technology effective against Covid-19 within 30 minutes of exposure to painted surfaces”. The claims were found baseless. The company did not challenge the notice, choosing to withdraw the ad.

Berger Paints India, too, faced action for advertising similar Covid claims. Most of these paints belonged to premium category products.

Companies that faced actions include Zodiac Apparels, which claimed its shirts could kill 99% of the Sars-COV-2 virus with a fictitious technology called HelqViroBlock. Other violators included Siyaram Apparel’s “anti-Corona suit fabric” and Kent water filter’s disinfectant equipment that removes “Covid virus from personal daily used items”. Air-conditioner maker Blue Star had to pull down an ad that claimed some its ACs deactivated viruses.

E-commerce platform Naaptol was fined ₹10 lakh for selling a knee device that “instantly relieved pain” without any such medical efficacy. Sure Vision India was fined ₹10 lakh for selling a product that claimed to improve eyesight without any “scientific credibility”, according to CCPA documents.

Fintech platform Paytm, which runs the Paytm Mall ecommerce platform, recently deposited ₹1 lakh as fine for allowing sale of unsafe pressure cookers that did not confirm to mandatory standards. The Consumer Protection Act was amended in 2019 to take into account consumer rights in a new economy marketplace marked by online transactions.