India Unveils Guidelines for Crypto Advertising – The Advertising Standards Council of India has issued promotion and advertising guidelines for crypto assets and related services. “Before framing these guidelines, we had several rounds of dialogue with the government, financial sector regulators, and industry stakeholders.”
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) announced Wednesday “guidelines for promotion and advertising of virtual digital assets and services.”
The guidelines are applicable to all advertisements associated with virtual digital assets (VDA)that are “commonly referred to as crypto or NFT [non-fungible token] products,” ASCI explained.
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ASCI Chairman Subhash Kamath outlined:
We conducted multiple rounds of conversation with the government, finance sector authorities, and industry players before formulating these guidelines.
Firstly, all crypto-related adverts must have the disclaimer that states: “Crypto goods and NFTs are unregulated and can be incredibly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any harm from such transactions According to India’s advertising authorities, the guidelines describe how the disclaimer should be made such that “it is prominent and unmissable by an average consumer.”
Second, the guidelines include the following information:
The phrases ‘currency,’ ‘securities,’ ‘custodian,’ and ‘depositories’ may not be used in ads of VDA products or services as consumers identify these terms with regulated products.
In addition, commercials may not depict a minor or someone who appears to be a minor.
Advertisements must neither pretend to be a solution to money or other issues nor promise a certain future increase in revenues. “Information on past performance will not be provided in any partial or biased manner. Returns for periods of less than 12 months will be excluded, according to ASCI.
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Noting that commercials should not downplay the risks involved with the asset class, the advertising watchdog wrote: “VDA products may not be connected to any other asset class which is regulated.”
India Unveils Guidelines for Crypto Advertising – A celebrity endorsement is also addressed in the guidelines. “Celebrities or notable personalities who feature in VDA commercials must take great care to ensure that they have done their due diligence on the statements and claims made in the advertisement,” ASCI said, adding:
The rules will apply to all advertisements that are published on or after April 1, 2022.