Procedure for Processing a Complaint against an Ad, for contravention of ASCI Code Written by Kapil Thakur

A: Pre Consumer Complaints Council (CCC)  Meeting Procedure

PREAMBLE

There are three types of Complaints which are received by ASCI

1. Complaints from the general public including from govt. officials, consumer groups, etc. 
   
2. Suo Motu complaints 
   
3. Intra industry complaints 
   

COMPLAINTS FROM THE GENERAL PUBLIC

Complaints received from the  general public should be in  the prescribed format providing relevant particulars including clipping or copy of print Ad/promotion material / timing, date and channels of TVC broadcast.

However, in order to facilitate the General Public making complaints, the Secretariat will not insist on accepting complaints in the prescribed format or requiring a copy of the clipping as long as details of product / service, publication / channel / location, date / time and nature of complaint is clearly stated.  The Secretariat using services of ad tracking agency will obtain the ad, in case a person from General Public is not able to furnish clipping, etc. The Secretariat will accept telephonic complaints also as is done by SRO’s outside of India.  It will confirm and verify the complaints by writing to the party concerned, when a complaint is made orally.

SUO MOTU COMPLAINT

When a member of the ASCI Board, CCC, or the Secretariat makes a complaint then it is treated as a suo motu complaint.  The Board member, CCC member or the Secretariat has to register a complaint in writing.  When a complaint is deliberated upon by the CCC, it can raise a suo motu complaint on another matter against other claims made in the originally complained advertisement.  Suo moto complaint goes through the same process as other complaints, ensuring that the Advertiser is given an opportunity to explain their view point.  If a suo motu complaint is raised by the Secretariat, it needs the approval of the CCC.  The CCC member/s who make a complaint should not be part of the deliberations and evaluation of the specific complaint.

INTRA INDUSTRY COMPLAINT

When a competitor makes a complaint against another Advertiser, it is considered to be an Intra Industry complaint. If the complainant in this case mentions or quotes any reference to a test or study contradicting the claim made by the advertiser, then the complainant will be required to produce the same.  Where there is an Intra Industry complaint and both parties give contradictory reports on a claim made in the ad, then the Secretary General shall forward both reports to the CCC’s  technical experts whose views shall be tabled before the CCC for further deliberation on the Complaint.

In case  a third party Independent Report is required after that, the CCC shall ask the Advertiser for the same.

PROCESSING A COMPLAINT

On receipt of a complaint (should be complete with relevant particulars including clipping or copy of print  Ad/promotion material provided by complainant), the Secretariat will acknowledge the complaint and request the advertiser / agency to provide comments / response in respect of the complaint. Secretariat will send out these two letters within 5 working days of receipt of the complaint. -2- ASCI’s letter to the advertiser will carry an annexure, which contains verbatim the entire complaint of the complainant (with annexures/attachments), but care will be taken to see that the identity of the complainant is not revealed. In case, if the attachments include laboratory test reports, the identity of the laboratory or the source of authentication will be concealed.

Complainants, who are advertisers themselves, are required to provide an additional copy of the complaint and annexures/attachments, if any, on plain paper so that the additional set may be forwarded to the advertiser for their comments.

1. 1. ASCI will give the advertiser 2 weeks for response, from date of receipt of ASCI letter. ASCI Secretariat will allow 3 days for receipt of letter by the advertiser.
2. In the first instance, if the complaint appears extremely frivolous and there seems to be no basis for the complaint, then the Secretary General will not send out a letter to  the advertiser but will put up the same at the next CCC meeting to decide whether the complaint should be processed or not.  The CCC will direct further action.
3. Complaint with all supporting information provided by the complainant and the advertiser / agency complained against, along with CCC’s technical experts’ opinion, if any, will be placed on the agenda of the next CCC meeting (usually held in the 4th week of each month).
4. If the matter requires deeper technical evaluation, the CCC should refer the complaint to independent expert/s, if available, chosen from a list of experts nominated by the Board as experts in certain areas like soaps and detergents, drugs, lubricants, white goods, etc.

B: CCC Meeting  Procedure

PREAMBLE

Wit the increasing importance / responsibility taken by the ASCI it is essential that the CCC creates the appropriate meeting procedure expeditiously. To ensure focus in functioning efficiently and effectively, the deliberations of the CCC is to be conducted in the following structured manner:-

MEETING PROCEDURE

• The Secretary General should read out the complaint  number and complaint. He  should also summarise the Advertiser’s response.
• The Chairperson should ensure that each member present gets an opportunity to express his/her opinion.  After each person has given his / her views the Chairperson should give his views and then seek a consensus on the decision. If a consensus is not forthcoming, the decision should be voted upon and the Secretary General should record the overall vote only and not the specific vote of any individual CCC Member.

CHAIRMAN

The regular presence of an ASCI Board member in the CCC meeting is appreciated.  The  5th CCC member who arrives at the meeting chairs the Meeting.

ADVANCE COMMUNICATION

If due consideration is to be given to the complaints and advertiser’s response, the Summary of the Complaints and the Advertiser’s response should be sent by the Friday preceding the meeting by email  to those who confirm their attendance. A CCC member who is “interested in the complaint”, being an advertiser or an agency associated with the advertiser, as the complainant or the party complained against, will not participate in the CCC proceedings and will not be present when the complaint is being discussed. Such interested members will also not be sent papers relevant to the complaint. A CCC member who has raised the Suo Motu complaint will not participate in the discussions.

 

C: Post CCC Meeting Procedure

Once the CCC has taken a decision on the complaint, (which will be recorded in the minutes of the CCC meeting), the party complained against will be informed of the CCC decision, within 5 working days. If the complaint is Not Upheld, the complainant and the advertiser will be informed simultaneously.

If the complaint is Upheld, then the Advertiser and its Agency will be informed of the CCC decision within 5 working days. The advertiser will be given 2 weeks to assure time bound compliance with the CCC decision. On receipt of this assurance, the complainant will also be informed of the CCC decision.

If a positive response is not received or compliance is not assured by the advertiser, within 2 weeks as above, a letter from the Vice-Chairman, ASCI, will be dispatched to the advertiser requesting their commitment within 2 weeks, to the withdrawal of the offending Ad or its appropriate modification so as to avoid contravening the ASCI Code. Simultaneously the concerned agency and the concerned media vehicle will be advised that the Ad contravenes the Code. The Secretariat will then advise the complainant of the CCC decision.

If such positive assurance from the advertiser, is still not received, the offending Ad will be included in the ASCI’s Media Release (on an All India basis), which will be issued once in every 3 months, along with the Quarterly Compilation Report of CCC decisions. This Report is  circulated to all ASCI members, concerned Associations of Practitioners in Advertising, ( e.g. ISA, AAAI, INS, IBF, RAPA, etc.), government authorities including the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Media all over the country. (Members of ASCI are obliged to comply with the CCC decisions on complaints, since the Memorandum & Articles of Association stipulate the observance of the ASCI Code, by all members).

Peer Group influence will be extended through respective Associations of Practitioners in Advertising (AAAI, IAA –India Chapter, ISA, INS, IBF, RAPA, etc), who will be sent requests from the Chairman, ASCI, to influence their own constituents responsible for such offending Ads, to refrain from indulging in Ads which lack credibility and erode consumer confidence in advertised goods and services. Copies of such communications will be sent to the concerned agency and media vehicle.

An Advertiser / Agency failing to comply with the CCC decision in writing on a complaint Upheld. against a  T.V. Commercial, may be considered as a violation of the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act 1995  and notified amendments of 2nd August 2006.  ASCI will therefore inform the Ministry of   I&B   and IBF, about the T.V. Commercial contravening the ASCI Code.

If an Advertiser / Agency fails to comply with the CCC decision in writing on a complaint Upheld against a Press Ad, the ASCI will inform the Press Council of India and the INS, about the print Ad contravening  the ASCI Code. The CCC Procedure provides for a Review of a CCC decision if all of the following conditions are satisfied:

 

1. A written application for a Review is made within 2 weeks of receipt of a CCC decision.
2. The application is accompanied by a payment of Rs.10,000/- as non-refundable fee for consideration of a Review of the CCC decision.
3. The advertiser is in a position to provide additional pertinent information/material not submitted earlier, to ASCI.
4. The advertiser has confirmed suspension of the offending Ad, pending review.
5. The advertiser has given an undertaking in the review application, that he will accept and comply with the review decision.

 

Complaints of a same or similar nature, on the same or similar Ads, on which CCC decisions have been notified, will generally not be taken up for renewed deliberation by the CCC.

The Procedure will ensure that the name/identity of the complainant is not disclosed/revealed to anybody, except at the CCC meetings, which are attended only by the CCC members. However, the text of the complaint along with all annexures will be sent to the party complained against.

The CCC meeting protocols do not provide for personal representation by complainant/advertiser/agency in respect of complaints being deliberated upon at the CCC meeting. The ASCI and the CCC are not Clearing Houses or Voluntary Censor bodies, and hence Ads are not cleared or approved. The ASCI Code is well publicized and made available promptly on request. It is recognized by almost all

Practitioners in Advertising as the universally relevant/applicable Code for Self-Regulation in respect of Ads in India. It is broad based to cover the entire gamut of Media vehicles – Print, AV, Outdoor, Promotion/Merchandising vehicles and even packaging as a vehicle of promotion.

However, ASCI now offers pre production/release copy advice to members. A panel of experienced persons has been formed who have a) close knowledge of the ASCI Code and Rules and b) experience in working of ASCI Board and/or its CCC.

Copy advice is defined as confidential, non-binding pre-publication/release advice about a specific advertising proposal, provided by ASCI to its member advertiser, agency or media.  The forms which copy advice takes may vary, but it has two essential characteristics:

 

• it is non-binding;
• it concerns a specific advertising proposal (i.e. an advertisement or a campaign).

 

The advertisers, agencies or media members of ASCI can ask for copy advice. There will be no charge for Copy Advice for  the ad of an advertiser who is a member of ASCI. However, copy advice for the ad of an  advertiser who is not an ASCI member will be charged at Rs 1000 per ad. The advice is not binding on the advertiser or on ASCI’s CCC.

This will be stated upfront to the member seeking copy advice  Modifications in Ads, even though carried out in response to CCC decisions as advised, are not cleared or approved by the CCC/ASCI. It is implicit that such modifications are in observance of the ASCI Code and have been motivated by the spirit of the Code, not just the letter itself. Such modified Ads will therefore again be subject to the forces/conventions in the market place and to the perceptions of the consuming publics.

 

 

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