The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed penalties for violations of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 on Vajirao & Reddy Institute and StudyIQ IAS and Edge IAS. While a penalty of Rs seven lakh each has been imposed on the Vajirao Institute and StudyIQ IAS, Rs one lakh punitive fine has been imposed on Edge IAS for advertising misleading claims regarding the results of the UPSC CSE 2022 and 2023, respectively.
These actions are taken to protect and promote the rights of consumers and to ensure that no false or misleading advertisements are made for any goods or services that contravene the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
The CCPA had taken action against misleading advertisements by coaching institutes. In this regard, CCPA has so far issued 45 notices to various coaching institutes for misleading advertisements. It has imposed a penalty of Rs 71.60 lakh on 22 coaching institutes and directed them to discontinue the misleading advertisements.
The CCPA, headed by Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare and Commissioner Anupam Mishra, found out that Vajirao & Reddy Institute prominently displayed successful candidate’s names & pictures and simultaneously advertised various types of paid courses on its official website. However, the information with respect to the course opted by the said successful candidates in UPSC Civil Service exam 2022 was not disclosed in the abovementioned advertisement.
It found out that all the claimed 617 successful candidates were enrolled in the Interview Guidance Programme. It is the right of the consumer to be informed about the specific course that successful candidates had taken from the coaching institute to make it into the final selection of CSE. For the potential consumers, this information would have contributed in their making an informed choice about the course to be opted for their success at CSE.
By deliberately concealing about the specific course opted by each of the successful candidates, the Vajirao & Reddy Institute 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.
The institute offers nearly 60 plus courses. However, the CCPA after examining the institute reply and investigation report found out that out of these 134, as many as 126 students opted for Interview Guidance Programme (IGP), three were enrolled in Ethics & Essay Crash course, two were enrolled in MRP (Mains Residential Programme course), two were enrolled in MOCK, one was enrolled in Foundation, Online MRP, DAF Analysis. StudyIQ IAS, by deliberately concealing the specific name of the course opted by the successful candidates, created a misleading impression on consumers into making an uninformed choice about the quality of its service regarding the advertised courses, in which IGP has not been advertised at all.
StudyIQ IAS failed to substantiate its claim “Success Pakka Offer” and “Selection Pakka Offer” and also failed to submit Application/Enrollment/Registration forms & fee receipts of the claimed successful candidates of UPSC CSE 2023.
In light of these circumstances, CCPA found it necessary to impose a penalty in the interest of young and impressionable aspirants/consumers to address such false or misleading advertisement and unfair trade practice.
It also imposed a penalty of Rs one lakh on Edge IAS for advertising misleading claims regarding results of UPSC CSE 2023. Edge IAS, in its published advertisement prominently carried pictures and names of 13 successful candidates of UPSC Civil Service Exam 2023 while concealing important information such as the course opted by them. The CCPA found out that 11 candidates were enrolled in the Interview Guidance Program (IGP) and 2 were enrolled in the Mentoring Course and IGP which comes into play only after clearing Preliminary and Mains examination.
Section 2(28) (iv) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, defines misleading advertisements, including those that involve the “deliberately conceals important information”. The CCPA has observed that several coaching institutes use the same successful candidates’ names and photographs in their advertisements while deliberately concealing important information about specific courses opted by them to create a deception that the successful candidates were regular classroom students at coaching 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 in order to enable them to make an informed choice while deciding the course and coaching institute or platform to enroll in.