Legal Regulation of False and Misleading Advertisements with Special Reference to Consumer Protection Act, 2019

Advertising is an effective sales promotion technique to bring the products and services to public attention and persuade consumers to purchase them. It is one of the important elements of the promotion mix and the best marketing strategy adopted by marketers to highlight their products and ensure maximum public outreach as it has various media sources such as TV, radio, newspapers, posters and other social networking websites extended towards the public. The quality of advertisement, namely, celebrity endorsements, definitely influences the consumer's buying behaviour and hence plays a vital role in the decision-making process of product purchase. Hence consumer's interests must be protected in relation to these advertisements through proper legislation and Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was enacted by the Parliament to protect, promote and enforce the rights of consumers in case of consumer rights violations and unfair trade practises, and proposed a three-tier redressal mechanism at District, State and National level for speedy disposal of consumer grievances. Later on, this Act was replaced by Consumer Protection Act, 2019 which inserted new provisions for false and misleading advertisements and establishment of Central Authority for effective enforcement of consumer rights. This Article reviews the legal regulation of false and misleading advertisements under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the establishment of a new investigation agency known as Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) for investigating and deciding on matters relating to misleading or deceptive advertisements.