24 complaints on misleading & surrogate ads

NEW DELHI: A total of 13 complaints against surrogate advertisements and 11 against misleading advertisements on the electronic media have been received in the recent past, Parliament was told.

Meanwhile, the Department of Consumer Affairs is holding a series of consultations and workshops with all stakeholders in different parts of the country to create awareness about this issue.

In 2010-11 and 2011-12, a total of seven and eight complaints respectively were filed about misleading advertisements in the print media, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting C M Jatua told the Lok Sabha.

Jatua said the Consumer Protection Act 1986 had ample provisions to act against advertisements making false or misleading representation and these had been duly notified as Unfair Trade practices for which a consumer could approach the Consumer Courts.

The Press Council Act and the Journalistic Norms drawn up by the Council, and the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act apart from the Advertising Standards Council of India also had powers to deal with such complaints.

In reply to another question, Parliament was informed that a representative of the Department of Consumer Affairs was now represented on the Inter-Ministerial Committee which hears complaints against TV channels.