MUMBAI: During the months of March and April 2020, ASCI investigated complaints against 533 advertisements, of which 115 advertisements were promptly withdrawn by the advertisers on receipt of communication from ASCI. The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) evaluated the remaining 418 advertisements, of which complaints against 377 advertisements were upheld. Of these 377 advertisements, 187 belonged to the healthcare sector, 132 belonged to the education sector, 15 to the food & beverages sector, nine belonged to the real estate sector, five to the personal care and the immigration sector each and 24 were from the ‘others’ category.

The ministry of AYUSH sought help from the ASCI team to alert them about such advertisements. The ASCI team picked over 50 such COVID cure advertisements in April, notifying the advertisers to withdraw them forthwith within a week.  ASCI closely monitored digital media, social media handles and web-sites of the advertisers. Over 90 cases of potential violation of the drugs and magic remedies regulations were also flagged to the regulator. During this period, the CCC continued their meetings over video conferencing.

According to ASCI chairman Rohit Gupta, “I am very proud of our ASCI team that has remained accessible and responsive to all stakeholders during this pandemic situation. Our Consumer Complaints Council has been very efficient as we continue to deliberate via video conferencing. We appreciate the cooperation being extended by the complainants as well as the advertisers to ensure self-regulation of advertising content by ensuring time bound compliance.”

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