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The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has released draft guidelines for prevention of misleading advertisements in the coaching sector for public consultation.
Practices such as making false claims about success rates, number of selections or rankings of students in ads or creating false sense of urgency or fear of missing out that may heighten anxieties have been termed as “misleading”, in the draft guidelines.
The draft guidelines also stated that concealing important information related to the name of the course and duration of course opted by successful candidates among other such information in ads will also be considered misleading. “Falsely representing in ads that students’ success is solely attributable to the coaching, without acknowledging the individual efforts of the students,” will also be considered misleading and coaching institutes will need to clearly state the extent of the coaching involvement in their success.
The draft defines “coaching” as tuition, instructions or academic support or learning programme or guidance provided by any person.
It has also defined obligations for any person engaged in coaching. The coaching institutes will need to disclose rank secured by the successful candidate, name of the course opted by them, duration of course and whether such a course was paid or free in ads. They will also be obliged to “put disclaimer/ disclosure/ important information at a prominent and visible place in the advertisement. The font of disclaimer/disclosure/Important information in the advertisement shall be the same as that used in the claim/advertisement,” the draft stated. They are also not allowed to use name, photos or testimonials of successful candidates without consent.
Guidelines
In such ads, coaching institutes will be obliged to “accurately represent” the facilities, resources and infrastructure available to students in the advertisement, the draft guidelines added. It added that coaching institutes should refrain from cherry-picking exceptional cases to create skewed impression of success and will need to maintain transparency and truthful representation in their ads.
“Every person engaged in coaching shall not make false claims which includes 100 per cent selection or 100 per cent job guaranteed or guaranteed preliminary/mains or guaranteed admission to institutions or false testimonials of successful students or fake reviews,” the draft stated. Stakeholders have been asked to submit comments by March 16.
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