ASCI Announces Marketing And Publicity Rules For Virtua Digital Assets – VDA

According to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), specific rules must be applied to advertising all virtual digital assets, including cryptocurrency and  NFTs, on or after April 1, 2022. The primary purpose of these rules is to protect customers from misleading ads. 

Related Readings| Indian Authorities Bust Crypto Racket, More Than $5M Stolen From Victims

After a detailed negotiation of all stakeholders, including the government, ASCI sketched the guidelines.

Advertising Standards Council of India recommends that all the advertisements of crypto assets must clearly state, “Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be extremely risky.” There is no regulatory recourse responsible for damages from such trades”.

ASCI also recommends prohibiting VDA (Virtual Digital Assets) from using depositories, currency, custodians, and security on the advertisement material of the products or any service because customers identify these terms with regulated products. 

Companies will be bound not to disclose information about past performance halfway or influencing manner. In addition, ASCI guides companies not to include the income for less than 12 months in their marketing material.

Related Readigs| India Will Never Accept Cryptocurrency As Legal Tender, Says Finance Secretary

As per the new rules of ASCI, the individual who is minor, or looks like a minor, is not allowed to involve directly in the trade of products and even can not talk about the advertising of VDA products. In addition, further declarations that promise or guarantee increased profit in the future will not be included in the advertisement.

ASCI Provided Framework For Celebrities

ASCI also provides a clear framework for celebrities and essential personalities in VDA advertisements. ASCI guides them to make sure that they carefully state disclosures made in the advertisements. Any single false statement can be dangerous and mislead the customer because digital currency is highly volatile and risky. 

CoinDCX and CoinSwitch have attracted Bollywood stars for their ad campaigns during the ICC World Cup. This is an example of how they can use cryptocurrency in everyday life.

ASCI chairman Subhash Kamath said’

We had several rounds of discussion with the government, finance sector regulators, and industry stakeholders before framing these guidelines. Advertising virtual digital assets and services needs specific guidance, considering that this is a new and emerging way of investing. Hence, there is a need to make consumers aware of the risks and ask them to proceed with caution.

While the Advertising Standards Council of India guidelines is not legally binding, they have a self-regulatory body with high compliance rates. In addition, if someone breaches these standards, they will most likely be publicizing their name and details about what happened in order for others to follow suit if necessary.

The practice is standard across all instances where there has been noncompliance before– but the ASCI, 95% rate, shows how committed they really are when protecting consumer interests while advertising.

               Featured image from Pixabay and chart from TradingView.com