BREAKING: MIB advisory on SDC; Only Food & Health sectors to upload self-declaration certificate for ads
The advisory by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting comes after it met with the industry stakeholders including Meta, Google, ISA, DNPA, and others on June 25, where it acknowledged the suggestion to limit the mandate to the food and health sectors only.
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The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued an advisory for food and health sectors to upload an annual 'self- declaration certificate' for advertisements. This advisory follows the June 25th meeting of the Ministry with the industry stakeholders including Meta, Google, ISA, DNPA, among others where it had acknowledged the suggestion to limit the mandate to the food and health sectors only.
"In light of the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, and in supersession of previous Advisories dated 03.06.2024 and 05.06.2024, advertisers/advertising agencies issuing advertisements for products and services related to Food and Health sectors are advised to upload an annual self-declaration certificate on the mentioned portals, as applicable, and make available the proof of uploading the self-declaration to the concerned media stakeholders, such as TV channels, newspapers, entities involved in publishing of advertisements on the internet, etc. for the record," it read.
These annual certificates by the advertisers/advertising agencies will be uploaded on the Broadcast Seva Portal for TV/radio ads and on the portal of the Press Council of India (PCI) for advertisements print media/internet ads.
It was also clarified that it shall be the responsibility of the advertisers/advertising agencies to ensure that every advertisement being issued by them is in adherence to the applicable Indian laws, rules and regulations in letter and spirit.
As of now, advertisers and agencies across categories are required to upload SDC before each advertisement is released, irrespective of the number of the ads in a single day. As of present, PCI has around 66,000 SDCs on its portal, whereas BSP has around 8,000 SDCs on its portal.
It is for the first time, the Ministry has either mentioned 'annual' SDC or restricted the mandate/regulation just for the food and health sectors.
On June 25, the Ministry acknowledged that what stemmed from the Patanjali misleading ad case and false health-specific claims got extrapolated to all the sectors. Thus, it deliberated on whether the interpretation of the Supreme Court order was done correctly or not and further shared its intention to make it limited to the health and food sector.
The SC issued a directive in its order on SDC on May 7, 2024. Following which, the MIB introduced a new feature on the BSP and PCI portals. The certificate, signed by an authorised representative of the advertiser/advertising agency, needs to be submitted through these portals, it then said.
During the meeting, ISA also urged the Ministry for a 'one-time declaration format' instead of having individual certificates for every ad. Meanwhile, the INS shared technical glitches faced while uploading/submitting the SDCs on the portals. Further, INS also recommended a 'single-declaration letter on compliance' as an alternative and to simplify the process.
Radio industry stakeholders highlighted the revenue loss that they are facing due to the SDC implementation.
During the meeting, the Department of Consumer Protection was asked questions about lapses, and actions taken so far to tighten the roles and responsibilities to instrumentalise the current Order.
Overall, the Ministry while addressing the issues and softening its stance on the matter, noted that it is working towards tuning the regulation-- thus making it simpler for the industry and limiting the scope to the food and health sector.
Earlier, Storyboard18 broke the news on how the Ministry has decided to form a 'core committee' with key stakeholders including advertisers, before it goes to the top court on July 9th for a fair representation.
