Lagatar 24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 23: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has issued specific guidelines for virtual digital asset advertisements. The rules will apply to all advertisements published on or after April 1, 2022.
According to ASCI standards, all advertisements for virtual digital assets must include a disclaimer, “Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions”. The same disclaimer goes for non-fungible tokens (NFT) as well.
The terms currency, securities, custodian, and depositories may not be used in marketing for VDA products or services, according to ASCI standards, because consumers identify these terms with regulated products. Furthermore, no partial or biassed information about past performance shall be presented. The ASCI guidelines state that returns for periods of less than 12 months are not to be included.
The guidelines also forbid presenting a youngster, or someone who looks to be a minor, actually dealing with the product or talking about it in a VDA product advertisement. It also prevents advertisements from making promises or guarantees about future profit increases.
Celebrities and prominent figures who feature in VDA advertising are also cautioned by ASCI rules to ensure that they have done their due diligence on the statements and claims made in the advertisement in order to avoid misleading customers, as this is a dangerous category.
