The Center on Friday issued endorsement guidelines for celebrities and social media influencers mandating mandatory disclosure of monetary or material benefits of a product or brand they are promoting through their social media platforms. Failure to do so will attract a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh.
Releasing the guidelines, Union Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh at a press conference said that the disclosure should be prominently and clearly displayed in the advertisement and words like ‘advertisement’, ‘sponsored’ or ‘paid promotion’ should not be used. Must be done for all types. Approval. He said that this step has been taken after considering the increasing use of social media for promotional activities, which goes beyond advertisements or advertisements in print or electronic media.
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Guide ‘Endorsements Know-How!’ celebrities, influencers and virtual influencers on social media platforms and also aims to ensure that individuals do not mislead their audience while endorsing products or services and that they comply with the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act and any related Be in compliance with the rules or guidelines. “With the increasing reach of digital platforms and social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, there has been a rise in the influence of virtual influencers, apart from celebrities and social media influencers. This has increased the risk of consumers being misled by advertisements and unfair trade practices by these persons on social media platforms,” the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs said in a release.
The guidelines specify that disclosures must be prominently and clearly displayed in support, making them “extremely difficult to miss”. Benefits and incentives in accordance with the Guidelines, and monetary or other compensation, trips or hotel accommodations, media barters, coverage and awards, free products with or without conditions, discounts, gifts and any family or personal or employment relationship material benefits come under. “The endorsement must be made in simple, clear language and may use words such as ‘advertisement,’ ‘sponsored,’ or ‘paid promotion.’ They must not endorse any product or service and diligence has been done or which he has not personally used or experienced,” the Center said.
If there is a violation, the penalty prescribed for misleading advertisements under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 will be applicable. In that case, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) can impose a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh on manufacturers, advertisers and endorsers, and up to Rs 50 lakh for repeat offenders. The CCPA can bar an endorser of a misleading advertisement from making any endorsements for up to one year and extend the ban to three years for subsequent violations.
Mr Singh said that the size of the Social Media Influencer market in India in 2022 was of the order of Rs 1,275 crore and by 2025, it is expected to grow to Rs 2,800 crore with a compound annual growth rate of around 19-20%. Mr. Singh said, “Social media influencers, meaning those who have a good number of followers, are more than one lakh in the country.”
how to disclose
The new guidelines specify to whom to disclose, when to disclose and how to disclose.
Disclosure to individuals/groups with the power to influence their audience’s purchasing decisions or views about a product, service, brand or experience because of the influencer’s/celebrity’s authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with their audience to do.
Disclosure should occur “when there is a material relationship between an advertiser and the celebrity/influencer that may affect the weight or credibility of the representation made by the celebrity/influencer”, Mr Khare said.
He said the disclosure should be made in such a way that it is “difficult to miss” and should be in simple language.
Disclosures should be placed in the support message in such a way that they are clear, prominent and extremely difficult to miss. Disclosure should not be mixed with a hashtag or group of links.
In support of a photograph, the disclosure must be sufficiently superimposed on the image for the viewer to notice it. Disclosures in video should be placed in the video and not just in the description and they should be made in both audio and video formats.
In the case of a live stream, the disclosures must be displayed continuously and prominently throughout the stream.
He added that even words like ‘XYZAssador’ (where XYZ is a brand) are acceptable on a space-constrained platform like Twitter.
The Secretary said that these guidelines are being issued within the overall ambit of the Consumer Protection Act and one of the main underpinning principles of the law is prevention of unfair trade practices.
“There are many ways in which unfair trade practices occur, one important unfair trade practice is the threat of misleading advertisements, which is trying to sell something that is not being portrayed in the advertisement.
“While this has been handled well in traditional media – that is TV, print and radio, social and digital media platforms are becoming different ball games,” Mr Singh said.
– PTI
ASCI welcomes endorser guidelines
Manisha Kapoor, CEO & Secretary General, ASCI said, “ASCI welcomes the endorser guidelines issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. We are happy to note that they are in line with ASCI’s effective Guidelines, 2021. Influencer breaches comprise around 30% of ads taken down by ASCI, so this legal support for disclosure requirements is a welcome step. The ministry was in touch with ASCI to review various global guidelines on influencers.