Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the self
regulatory body for content in Indian advertising, has launched the country’s
first consumer complaint mobile app — ASCIonline. The app is part of ASCI’s
effort to address the issue of misleading advertisements.
The mobile app is currently available on android and iOS and
is free. “One of the goals of ASCI is to provide convenient access for lodging
complaints and hence the launch of the mobile app,” Narendra Ambwani, ASCI
Chairman, said in a statement.
“ASCIonline mobile app is consumer friendly and can be
freely downloaded. It will be very useful as one can track the status of the
complaints which he or she registered on our portal with the help of the App.”
The app is easy to use and a consumer can lodge a complaint
by providing advertisement details and the objection. Users can also attach
files like image or video or YouTube link of the advertisement. In the case of
multiple complaints, the user can check the history of all previously registered
complaints with the latest status and all other details.
Shweta Purandhare, secretary general, ASCI said the app made
it easier for the consumer to raise their voice against misleading ads. “Four
years ago we launched an on-line complaint system but seeing the penetration of
smartphones, we felt the free app would make it even simpler for the consumer.”
ASCI has been steadily seeing an increasing number of
consumer complaints and Ms. Purandhare said in the last six months, the average
number was around 300 per month.
“Indian consumers hardly complain when compared to the
western counterparts. The barriers are the paucity of tools to complain and the
lack of impact of the complaint. We have been working to address these issues
and companies have acted on our complaints with compliance as high as 90 per
cent.”
The role of ASCI and its Consumer Complaints Council (CCC)
was to deal with complaints received from consumers and industry against
advertisements which are reported to be false, misleading, indecent and
illegal, leading to unfair practices.
Source From:- http://www.thehindu.com/
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