Bring brand ambassadors under Consumer Protection Act: CAIT

Traders body CAIT today said brand ambassadors should be brought under the ambit of Consumer Protection Act as consumers are often "guided" through such endorsement, irrespective of quality of product.
Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) also threatened to move court if the government did not take necessary action.
The body, in a communication sent to Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, demanded that specific guidelines be formulated, fixing the liability of brand ambassadors.
"It has been observed that prominent personalities of different fields are engaged by big companies to endorse their products to grab more share in the market for their products irrespective of the quality of the product and those personalities in lust of earning huge money never care for the quality," CAIT said.

Calling the brand ambassadors "service providers", CAIT said the endorsements influence customer's choice to great extent.
"Brand ambassadors become integral part of sales campaign of such product and cannot escape from the liability of the claims made by them in endorsements... In case we do not hear anything from the Government, we shall be left with no other alternative but to move the matter to Court," CAIT said.
It added that "being a celebrity, one can not be absolved from the responsibility".
There has been a lot of debate in the past on the matter, including when Maggi was briefly banned in the Indian market.