Traders threaten to move court on brand ambassadors

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) thre-atened to go to court if the government did not fix the liability of brand ambassadors and formulate specific guidelines for them.

It had also asked the government to bring brand ambassadors under the ambit of the Consumer Protec-tion Act. The issue arose following the prote-sts against actor Shahrukh Khan when a builder’s project he endorsed did not live up to their assurances.

CAIT had earlier sent a demand to Union consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan regarding prominent personalities of different fields being engaged by big companies to endorse their products to grab more share in the market for their products and irrespective of the quality of the product and in their “lust of earning huge money never care for the quality,”

Reminding Mr Paswan about their demand, Mr. B.C. Bhartia, national president and Mr Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general, in a joint statement, said: “In case we do not hear anything from the government, we shall be left with no other alternative but to move the matter to court.”

Asked about this demand, brand expert Harish Bijoor said: “Brand ambassadors need to be held responsible as they tout these products to consumers and based on these endorsements the consumers buy. So the responsibility element is essential. How much liability, what punishment etc., will have to be decided.”

He estimates that of the seven categories of products, 42 per cent of the consumption is touched by brand endorsements.

“This is a large number ” he said adding that the primary responsibility is that of the manufacturer and that of the brand ambassadors are secondary. Unless they are convinced of the product endorsing it would be like deceiving their fans.