 "ASCI brings down complaint processing time to 12 days")
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has announced that it now delivers its Consumer Complaint Council’s (CCC) decision on an average of 12 days from when the complaint against an objectionable advertisement is received. The ASCI is the advertising content self-regulatory body in India.
[caption id=“attachment_80099” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Earlier, the ASCI processed complaints in 45 days[/caption]
Before this, the ASCI’s turnaround time for consumer complaints was an average of 45 days. The council looks into complaints against advertisements that are:
• Misleading or make false claims
• Indecent
• Showing hazardous activities
• Unfair to competition
Commenting on these developments, Partha Rakshit, Chairman, ASCI, said, “ASCI’s effectiveness and credibility as an advertising self-regulatory organisation has increased several fold with speedier redressal of complaints and high compliance of its CCC’s decisions by advertisers. Regulatory bodies like MIB, DCA, FSSAI and FDA now recognise and support our self-regulation work with the inclusion of the ASCI in the Inter- Ministerial Monitoring Committee formed to review misleading ad content.”
ASCI, under its National Advertising Monitoring Service (NAMS), has also started tracking all ads against which complaints have been upheld both, in print and TV. It has also begun reporting non-compliant upheld ads to regulatory authorities such as the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB), the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the Medical Council of India (MCI), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to take legal action.