Assocham moots regulatory body to curb unfair business practices

New Delhi, Oct 25 (UNI) In an attempt to curb misleading advertisements and prevent losing an annual revenue of Rs 1200-1400 crore in terms of duty evasion on account of illegal sale of counterfeit products, industry body Assocham today called for seetimg up of a National Consumer Protection Regulatory Authority.

''A large number of consumers all over the country are mislead by advertisements as the content provided and promises made in such advertisements turn out to be absolutely false and amounts to enormous profiteering to the businesses running them, '' Assocham President Anil K Agarwal said.

In the absence of a regulatory mechanism to curb misleading advertisements the sectors in which fake advertisements go unoticed include consumer durables, fitness equipment, herbal, beauty products, cosmetics and detergents.

Among the sectors in which such advertisements proves detrimental for consumers are pharmaceuticals, auto components, engineering.

The regulatory mechanism as proposed by Assocham consists of a chairperson having distinguished background in legal area with at least 20 members drawn from relevant areas.

Besides, industry should also be represented in the suggested mechanism to provide adequate insight to government so that stringent laws are made and the threat emerging out of such advertisements is burried for good and consumers are protected against any cheating, said Mr Agarwal.

The chamber also suggested that until the government succeeds in setting up Consumer Protection Regulatory Authority, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs should evolve a mechanism through which it can penalise those, who release the misleading advertisements.

The suggested authority will work closely with all state governments and union territories in consultation with credible Voluntary Consumer Organisations (VCO) and NGOs for launching an awareness campaign to put a full stop on such unfair business practices.

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