In relation to public interest and complaints made by the people, the Indian High Court has called for standardizing disclaimers of all crypto-related advertisements.
The Delhi High Court has issued a notice in response to a complaint made in India about cryptocurrency commercials; the court has urged concerned regulatory authorities to look into the matter and offer guidelines for standardized disclaimers on advertisements in the public interest.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, M/s Wazir X, M/s CoinDCX, and M/s Coinswitch Kuber have all been notified by the Divisional Bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh, directing them to follow mandatory guidelines for all crypto advertisements broadcast in India.
Disclaimers with a standardized font size
Crypto assets are volatile by nature, according to the petition, and have a higher chance of dangerous outcomes when compared to regular investments.
Furthermore, the present disclaimers on advertisements for these unsafe digital assets are difficult to understand and should be broadcast in a larger font.
The standard size disclaimer shall read, “Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risk.”
In addition to regular size, the petition has asked for a voice-over of the disclaimers in the event that the ad is cut too short and viewers are unable to read the complete text as quickly. Cryptocurrency ads will be subject to the same full disclosure rules as mutual funds.
“An ordinary retail investor who views the audio-visual advertisement on television run by the films involved on a regular basis, as well as on online websites like YouTube, may suffer immense losses as a result of thereof whilst on the other hand; having a disclaimer on screen after the end of the advertisement with voice over in English and Hindi (as may be appropriate) and correct placing and at least 80% coverage in terms of the size on the screen to be viewable and readable by the investor, may instil wisdom of researching and reading up on the risk profiles surrounding crypto-assets prior to investing his hard-earned money in digital assets not understood by him.” stated the Plea filed by Petitioners Ayush Shukla and Vikash Kumar, who are both practising lawyers. (ANI)
