The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Friday imposed a fine on two training centers Motion Education Pvt. Ltd. and Career Line Coaching (CLC), Sikar, for misleading advertising and unfair trade practices under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Motion Education was fined Rs 10 lakh, while CLC was fined Rs 5 lakh.The CCPA said this action was taken to protect consumer rights and to ensure that no training institute makes false or misleading claims in advertisements.
The authority noted that both institutes used names, pictures and success stories of students in their IIT-JEE and NEET results while concealing basic details about the courses these students had actually enrolled in.The CCPA took notice of these advertisements on its own after it found that the institute prominently displayed successful students while promoting paid courses, without clearly disclosing which programs these students were actually enrolled in.
It was also found that some of the students whose names and photos were used registered after the exams, making their success incorrectly linked to the institute’s programs. The CCPA also noted that the Institute had been unable to provide adequate documentary evidence for many of its claims, even after repeated directions.The authority said that both institutes failed to provide evidence of written consent from students or parents to use their names and images, as required under the Prevention of Misleading Advertising in the Training Sector Guidelines, 2024.The CCPA directed both institutes to stop misleading advertising and ensure full and honest disclosure in future promotions. However, both the training centers have challenged the orders before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC).To date, the CCPA has issued more than 60 notices to training institutes for misleading advertising and unfair trade practices, with the aim of protecting students’ interests and improving transparency in the training sector. After detailed checks and investigations, the authority imposed penalties worth over Rs 1.39 lakh crore on 31 coaching institutes offering coaching for exams including UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE), IIT-JEE, NEET, RBI and other competitive exams.