ASCI upholds 87 of 108 complaints for December, 2013

The body has upheld 1477out of 1842 complaints in 2013. Around 40 per cent were from the education sector.

The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) of the ASCI has upheld complaints against 87of the 108 complaints against advertisements in December, 2013. As usual, Health & Personal Care category topped the list of complaints received by the self-monitoring body.

Giving 2013's tally, the ASCI press release highlighted how CCC had upheld 1477 complaints out of 1842. About 40 per cent of advertisements that were found to be misleading were from the education sector, followed by ads in the personal and healthcare category (36 per cent). In November, ASCI upheld 57 of 65 complaints.

For December, some of the companies (59 in all) that were found to have violated ASCI's code under the health and personal care segment included Ranbaxy Laboratories' 'Ranbaxy Garlic Plus', Uranyx Healthcare, The Body Care Slimming & Beauty Clinic for Men and Women, Rechoice Hair Oil, Welkin Convergence 'Morning Mist', Smile Dental Zone, Keya Seth's Aromatherapy, Pangene Biotech, SR Pharma, Meck Pharmachem 'Glucomeck Tablets', Aura Nutraceutical's 'Kohinoorprash Ayurvedic Chyavanprash', Dr Batra's Positive Health Clinic, Sree Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan's 'Baidyanath Vita Ex Gold Plus', Bio-Green Healthcare, Emami 'Zandu Sona Chandi Chyawanprash Plus', Dabur India's 'Fem Bleach Cream' and Procter & Gamble's 'Wella'.

In the education sector, CCC found the following companies guilty for showing misleading/ unsubstantiated claims: Anurag Aggarwal Institute of Public Speaking, National Institute of Banking, Indian Institute of Emergency Medical Services, Karunya University's Karunya School of Business, Leadership and Management, Saffron Eduworld Coaching, Jeet Conceptual Classes, Tara Institute, Lakshya Bankers, National Institute of Nursery Teachers and BSC Academy.

In the food & beverages segment, complaints were upheld against eight advertisements for unsubstantiated claims. Some of these were Organic Living, Cadbury India 'Cadbury Choclairs', Sula Vineyards of Nashik Vintners, Star Vision Aloe Star Juice, Jeevan Sanchay Distributors, Vimal Pan Masala and Haldiram Foods International's 'Haldiram Salted Peanuts'.

The complaints against ICICI Bank's ICICI Pockets, Microtek Inverter UPS, Ceat and JAM Venture Publishing's false job advertisement for the Royal National Hotel, London, were also upheld by the CCC.