Govt to study global practices for jail to brand ambassadors

New Delhi, Aug 30 (PTI) Laws in other countries will bestudied before taking a final call on stringent punishment,including imprisonment, for celebrities endorsing misleadingadvertisements and those involved in adulteration, a group ofministers decided today. A new draft law, which prescribes a jail term of up to 5years and a fine of Rs 50 lakh for celebrities endorsingmisleading advertisements, was taken up the group headed byFinance Minister Arun Jaitley. The Centre in last August had introduced the ConsumerProtection Bill 2015, in Lok Sabha to repeal the 30-year-oldConsumer Protection Act. A Parliamentary Standing Committeehad also submitted its recommendations in April. After studying the panel’s report, the Consumer AffairsMinistry accepted some key recommendations such as provisionsfor fixing liability on celebrities and stringent punishmentfor adulteration, among others. "We had a lengthy discussion. Today, it (draft bill) wasnot finalised. We decided to study the laws of other countriesfor celebrities endorsing misleading ads and those involved inadulteration. We will study and keep that information in thenext meeting," Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan toldreporters after the GoM meeting. The bill, incorporating key changes suggested by thepanel, will definitely be placed before Parliament in thecoming Winter Session, he added. "The next Parliament session will be in November. There isstill a lot of time to finalise the draft law," he noted. Besides Paswan, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad andMinister of State for Food C L Chaudhary were present in theinformal GoM meeting. According to sources, the ministry has proposed stringentprovisions to tackle the issue of misleading advertisements aswell as to fix liability on endorsers/celebrities. "For the first time offence, a fine of Rs 10 lakh andimprisonment of up to two years. For second and subsequentoffenses, a fine of Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment of five yearshas been proposed for celebrities and brand ambassadors," asource said. In order to check the menace of adulteration, the ministryhas proposed ‘penal offense’ and imprisonment at par withcelebrities for violation. It has also proposed a provisionfor suspension and cancellation of licence. The ministry has also accepted the panel’s recommendationto include ‘deficiency in services’ in product liability. On panel’s suggestion, it has agreed to provide anenabling provision for rule making to regulate e-commerce anddirect selling. PTI LUX BJABK