The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed penalty of ₹3 lakh on Vision IAS for misleading ad claim regarding result of UPSC CSE 2020, as part of a wider crackdown. In an official statement, it said that the decision was taken to protect rights of consumers and ensure that no false or misleading advertisement is made of any goods or services which contravenes the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
CCPA has so far issued 46 notices to various coaching institutes for misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices. It has imposed a penalty of 74.60 lakh on 23 coaching institutes and directed them to discontinue the misleading advertisements.
Sumilarly, in view of the violation of the Act, the CCPA, has issued an order against Vision IAS. The institute made a claim that “10 in Top 10 selections in CSE 2020 from various programs of Vision IAS”
“The CCPA found out that Vision IAS prominently displayed successful candidate’s names & pictures. However, the information with respect to the course opted by these successful candidates in UPSC Civil Service Exam 2020 was not disclosed in the advertisement,” the official statement noted.
“By deliberately concealing information about the specific course opted by each of the successful candidates, Vision IAS made it look like all the courses offered by it had the same success rate for the consumers, which was not right. These facts are important for the potential students to decide on the courses that may be suitable for them and should not have been concealed in the advertisement,” CCPA noted.
CCPA also said that it has observed that several coaching institutes use the same successful candidate’s names and photographs in their ads and create a deception that the successful candidates were regular classroom students at their institute or were students of several courses offered in the advertisement. “Therefore, information regarding the specific course opted by successful candidates is vital for the knowledge of consumers to enable them to make an informed choice while deciding the course and coaching institute/platform to enrol in,” it added.
