The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) found hundreds of real estate developers in Maharashtra to be carrying out false or misleading advertising, leading to the imposition of penalties worth early ₹90 lakh, showed its half-yearly report released on Tuesday.
According to the report, the ASCI reviewed 4,016 complaints and scrutinized 3,031 advertisements for potential violations of the ASCI Code in the state from April to September 2024. Over 90% of these ads were on digital platforms.
It scrutinized 2,115 real estate advertisements in Maharashtra for potential violations of the MahaRERA Act. Of these, it flagged 1,027 for further investigation. And 99% of those were found to be non-compliant with the Act.
Taking action against the violators, the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) penalized 628 real estate developers, imposing a penalty of ₹88.90 lakh, the data showed.
Some of the developers whose ads were found to be in violation of rules were Suraj Estate Developers Ltd, Magus Infratech Pvt. Ltd, Prithvi Buildcon, Vivanta Infinity Pvt. Ltd, among others.
Earlier this year, the self-regulatory body for the Indian advertising industry collaborated with MahaRERA to scrutinize real estate ads in the state.
Manisha Kapoor, ASCI's chief executive and secretary general, said the association with MahaRERA is yielding results with more consumers coming forth to register complaints against builders. “It's obviously yielding very good results. We do hope that we will be able to extend this to other states,” Kapoor said in an interview with Mint.
The sector is “tricky” to regulate, said Kapoor. “Promises developers make are future-oriented. At the time of an ad release, it's actually difficult to make out whether or not what the builder is promising will be delivered. The partnership with MahaRERA helped us to look at the sector in a more serious way,” she added.
The ASCI resolves issues around dishonest or misleading ads, indecent or offensive ads, harmful ads, and ads that are unfair in competition.
The body also found that ads for illegal betting and gambling platforms proliferated digital media in new formats in the first half of the year.
In response, ASCI referred 890 such ads to the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) for further action. Additionally, 50 websites and social-media pages were identified as promoting illegal betting apps and platforms, and nine influencer posts were found endorsing illegal betting services.
"This surge highlights the need for continued vigilance and regulatory action to curb illegal gambling promotions on digital platforms,” the ASCI said.
Monitoring illegal betting apps is an “ongoing area of work”, Kapoor added. “The jurisdiction in the case of betting is a little complex since it's a state subject and many players who advertise are not registered in India. The government is getting those websites off or those links removed. We have seen some migration to outdoor advertising. We have seen the government write to the local municipal corporations,” she added.
Meanwhile, the ASCI reviewed 100 advertisements for potential violations of the ASCI guidelines for making environmental or green claims. This was significantly higher than 34 such ads reviewed in the year-ago period.
“Notably, 99% of these ads were identified through the ASCI's proactive monitoring, with 100% ads requiring modifications due to a lack of transparency. The majority of the violative ads were from the home-care sector, where products claimed to be environment friendly, without adequate support data,” per data shared by the ASCI.
