Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has decided to take up a complaint against EaseMyTrip with the Centre for ignoring its advice even as the BSE-listed travel portal has filed a lawsuit against the advertising industry’s self-regulatory body.
EaseMyTrip in an advertisement claimed it is India’s “second largest online travel aggregator”, which was found to be misleading by ASCI’s consumer complaints council.
“The advertiser was advised to modify or take down the ad. However, they have not sent us any confirmation of the same,” ASCI secretary general Manisha Kapoor said. “Hence, this case will be escalated to CCPA (Central Consumer Protection Authority) and MIB (information and broadcasting ministry) for further action.”
EaseMyTrip is countering the move legally.
“The actions of ASCI are beyond its jurisdiction as EMT is not a member of ASCI,” Himank Tripathi, president, external affairs and investor relations, at EaseMyTrip, told ET in an email revert. “We have already filed a civil suit assailing the decisions of ASCI on many counts and presently the matter is sub-judice before the court.”
He said the matter is listed for hearing next month.
While ASCI’s guidelines are not legally enforceable, their violations are considered violation of government’s rules.
The council works closely with the consumer affairs department, I&B and Ayush ministries, CCPA, and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.
In a previous such instance involving a tech company, a Delhi district court had ruled that ASCI’s decisions will be binding on both its members as well as non-members.
In September last year, ASCI released an ‘advertising advice’ service for advertisers to factor in responsibility, due diligence and risk mitigation while creating campaigns. The service flags campaigns which could potentially violate any ASCI code or guideline before these are released, and takes into account learnings from various self-regulatory organisations.
EaseMyTrip, which was on the domestic stock exchanges last year, competes with MakeMyTrip, Yatra and Cleartrip.
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