CCPA slaps fine on 3 coaching institutes for misleading ads on UPSC CSE results

New Delhi, Dec 26: The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Thursday penalised three coaching institutes Vajirao and Reddy Institute, StudyIQ IAS, and Edge IAS for advertising misleading claims regarding the results of the UPSC CSE 2022 and 2023. The CCPA issued orders for violating the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Section 2(28) (iv) of the Act defines misleading advertisements, including those that “deliberately conceals important information”.

CCPA imposed a penalty of Rs 7 lakh each on Vajirao & Reddy Institute and StudyIQ IAS, and Rs 1 lakh on Edge IAS. “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,” said the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

The CCPA found out that Vajirao and Reddy Institute prominently displayed successful candidates’ names and pictures, and simultaneously advertised various types of paid courses on its official website. However, the information concerning the course opted by the said successful candidates in the UPSC Civil Service exam 2022 was not disclosed in the advertisement.

The advertisement also claimed that 617 successful candidates were enrolled in the Interview Guidance Programme, but it did not clarify the courses the successful candidates had taken from the coaching institute. “By deliberately concealing the specific course opted by each of the successful candidates, the Vajirao and 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 ministry said.

Similarly, StudyIQ IAS in its advertisement also deliberately concealed the specific name of the course opted by the successful candidates, creating a false impression on consumers. “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,” the ministry said.

“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 added. Further, Edge IAS in its falsely 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.

“CCPA has observed that several coaching institutes use the same successful candidate’s 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,” the ministry said.

The CCPA has been taking action against misleading advertisements by coaching institutes. To date, the regulator has issued 45 notices to various coaching institutes for misleading advertisements and collected total penalties of Rs 71.6 lakh from 22 coaching institutes. It has also directed them to discontinue the misleading advertisements.