The New Indian Consumer Initiative (NICI) and a coalition of leading consumer interest organizations have submitted a joint representation to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Advertising Standards Council of India, and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs, on prohibiting Opinion Trading platforms in India. According to the representation, these platforms offer pure play betting activities that mislead consumers through deceptive advertising, luring them to indulge in illegal and unauthorized activity, and exposing them to financial and psychological risks.
Abhishek Kumar, Convenor, NICI, “Through this joint representation, we urge the government to prohibit opinion trading in India and take decisive action, including issuing interim instructions to avoid consumer harm, banning digital and social media advertisements, prohibiting app stores, cloud service providers, and payment gateways from supporting these platforms. We also urge the Central Consumer Protection Authorities to investigate misleading claims and for law enforcement agencies to freeze assets linked to these platforms. “