The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), a regulatory authority, under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs on Tuesday came out with draft guidelines specifying “dos and don’ts” to stop misleading advertisements by the IAS coaching institutes. The move comes just months after the authority sent notices for misleading ads to 31 coaching institutes, including Unacademy, Byju’s IAS, Drishti IAS, and Vajirao & Reddy Institute.
As per guidelines, coaching institutes shall not claim 100 per cent selection or 100% job guaranteed or guaranteed preliminary or mains.
The draft guidelines will be approved and issued soon, Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) Chief Commissioner and Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said.
The Guidelines shall be applicable to all the coaching institutes whether online or physical and cover all forms of advertisement regardless of form, format or medium. As per guidelines, coaching institutes shall not make false claims regarding success rates or the number of selections and any other practices that may lead to consumer misunderstanding or subvert consumer autonomy and choice.
“The committee observed that there is an urgent need to issue the guidelines and the draft as discussed in the (January 8) meeting should be issued at the earliest,” the CCPA said in a statement.
The draft guidelines prescribe conditions when an advertisement by a coaching institute will be construed to be a misleading advertisement under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 which inter-alia include concealing information related to the course opted by the successful candidates (whether free or paid) and duration of course, among others.
The guidelines also prescribe DO’s and DON’T’s that need to be observed before coming up with advertisements.
It said that the coaching institute shall mention requisite information with the successful candidate’s photo, publish the rank secured by the successful candidate, the course opted by the successful candidate, the duration of the course, and whether it was paid or free.
Further, coaching institutes should not make claims such as ‘100 per cent selection’ or ‘100 per cent job guaranteed’ or ‘guaranteed preliminary or mains’.
The font of disclaimer/disclosure/important information in the advertisement should be the same as that used in the claim/advertisement. The placement of such information should be at a prominent and visible place in the advertisement.
The CCPA also clarified that the penalty for misleading advertisement by coaching sector will be governed as per Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the guidelines are just in the nature of clarification to the stakeholders.
The font of disclaimer/disclosure/important information in the advertisement shall be the same as that used in the advertisement, it said, adding that the placement of such information shall be at a prominent and visible place in the advertisement.
The consumer regulatory authority said it had taken sou moto action against misleading advertisements by coaching institutes. “In this regard, CCPA has issued notices to 31 coaching institutes for misleading advertisement and imposed fine on 9 of them for misleading advertisement.”
Notices were issued to Vajirao & Reddy Institute, Chahal Academy, Khan Study Group IAS, APTI Plus, Analog IAS, Shankar IAS, Sriram’s IAS, BYJU’s IAS, Unacademy, NEXT IAS, Drishti IAS, IQRA IAS, Vision IAS, IAS Baba, Yojana IAS, Plutus IAS, ALS IAS, Rau’s IAS Study Circle and Dhishti IAS.
The CCPA said it had observed that some of the coaching institutes mislead consumers by “deliberately concealing important information” with respect to courses opted by successful candidates, the duration of the course so attended and the fees paid by the candidates.
Some of the coaching institutes, it said, also indulged in making claims like 100 per cent selection, 100 per cent job guaranteed, and guaranteed preliminary and main examination without providing verifiable evidence.