By S&S Co. Advocates & Solicitors · Published 30 May 2026 · Informational content, not legal advice
About this article: A general explainer prepared by S&S Co. Advocates & Solicitors on a recurring type of dispute. It does not report a specific judgment or order, names no parties and gives no case citation, so it should not be cited as authority. Law and practice change; please verify against the current statute and primary sources before relying on it.
The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 gives the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) power to act against misleading advertisements, and Section 21 extends this to endorsers as well as manufacturers and advertisers. Penalties can include a monetary penalty and, for repeated contraventions, a prohibition on endorsing in future. The CCPA's Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022 add detail.
The statute provides that an endorser is not liable where they exercised due diligence to verify the claims made in the advertisement. In practice this means that an endorser cannot rely only on the advertiser's assurances, and that a generic line saying the endorsement is a personal opinion does not help where the advertisement makes specific, measurable factual claims, for instance about health outcomes within a defined time.
Factors that are generally relevant to whether due diligence was exercised include whether the endorser asked for and reviewed substantiation for the specific claims, whether the endorsement reflects the endorser's own experience of the product, and the endorser's reach and influence over the audience. The manufacturer, the agency and the endorser are each looked at for their own role, and liability is not automatically joint.