The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) is looking to overhaul guidelines around crypto advertising following discussions with the Union government, according to a report in the Economic Times. ASCI’s general secretary Manisha Kapoor informed the newspaper that existing codes mandate all advertising “to be honest and not exploit consumers’ lack of experience or knowledge”, which applies to crypto ads as well. She told ET that the guidelines will cover some of these issues: Adequate disclosure of risk Ads misleading consumers over the status of crypto products as legal tender Exaggerated claims or unfair comparisons with regulated asset classes What is ASCI? It is a voluntary self-regulatory organisation for advertising established in 1985. The body comprises members from marketing, creative, media, and allied companies. It drafts a code that advertising content must comply with and oversees its enforcement; however, ASCI’s guidelines are not legally enforceable. The announcement by ASCI suggests that the ads by crypto exchanges will be undergoing a change to temper the tenor of claims being made in them. Steps taken by the Union government to caution investors The Union government said that it was not going to ban ads by cryptocurrency exchanges, for the time being, in response to questions by Rajya Sabha MPs Neeraj Shekhar and Sushil Kumar Modi during question hour in the winter session of the Parliament. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, however, elaborated that the government is studying ASCI’s guidelines so as to take a decision on how to handle these ads if there…
