CCPA Slaps Penalties Of Rs 61.6 Lakh On 19 Teaching Centres For Deceptive Advertisements

New Delhi: The Central Client Safety Authority (CCPA) has imposed penalties of Rs 61.60 lakh on 19 teaching institutes and issued notices to 45 teaching centres for deceptive ads, the Parliament was knowledgeable on Tuesday.  

On November 13, 2024, the CCPA had issued “Pointers for Prevention of Deceptive Commercial in Teaching Sector, 2024” with a purpose to forestall teaching centres from making false or deceptive claims and ads to advertise the sale of products or companies and have interaction in misleading or unfair practices, Minister of State for Client Affairs B.L. Verma informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The Nationwide Client Helpline (NCH), administered by the Division of Client Affairs, has emerged as a single level of entry to shoppers throughout the nation for his or her grievance redressal at a pre-litigation stage. Shoppers can register their grievances from all around the nation in 17 languages by a toll-free quantity 1915. 

These grievances will be registered on the Built-in Grievance Redressal Mechanism (INGRAM), an omni-channel IT-enabled central portal, by numerous channels- WhatsApp, SMS, mail, NCH app, internet portal, Umang app, as per their comfort, the minister mentioned.

As many as 1,004 firms, who’ve voluntarily partnered with the NCH, as a part of the ‘Convergence’ programme, instantly reply to those grievances in response to their redressal course of, and revert by offering suggestions to the complainant on the portal. Complaints towards these firms, who haven’t partnered with the NCH, are forwarded to the corporate’s electronic mail ID for redressal, he mentioned.

The minister additionally highlighted that the Division of Client Affairs, by the NCH, has efficiently intervened at a pre-litigation stage to make sure justice for college kids and aspirants who enrolled for the UPSC Civil Companies, IIT, and different entrance examinations. 

Following quite a few complaints registered within the NCH relating to unfair practices by numerous teaching centres, particularly not refunding the enrolment charges of the scholars, the NCH initiated a drive to resolve these grievances on a mission mode to facilitate a complete refund of Rs 1.15 crore to affected college students, the minister mentioned.

The CCPA has been established underneath Part 10 of the Client Safety Act, 2019, to manage issues associated to the violation of the rights of shoppers, unfair commerce practices and false or deceptive ads that are prejudicial to the curiosity of the general public and shoppers to advertise, defend and implement the rights of the shoppers as a category.

The minister additionally mentioned that the Division of Client Affairs is repeatedly working for shopper safety and empowerment of shoppers by the enactment of progressive legislations. 

With a view to modernising the framework governing shopper safety within the new period of globalisation, applied sciences, e-commerce markets and so on., the Client Safety Act, 1986, was repealed and the Client Safety Act, 2019, was enacted.