Know Your Rights as a Consumer Part Two: Misleading Advertisement

DID YOU KNOW you may have a compensation claim if you purchase a product due to a deceptive or misleading advertisement?

Misleading advertising involves the marketing of information or visual content about a product that is misleading and unrealistic.
This could involve:

• describing a product or service, providing a false guarantee, and misleading consumers about its nature, substance, quantity, or quality, or

• conveying an express or implied representation that would be considered an unfair trade practice if made by the product’s manufacturer or seller, or deliberately concealing important information.

Misleading advertisements are indeed problematic as they could deceive consumers and lead them to make purchases based on false or exaggerated claims.

Let’s discuss two examples of misleading advertising in more detail:

False advertising is when a product or service is described inaccurately, guarantees are falsely made, or important information is concealed.

For example: A hair cream advertisement shows an actor claiming the cream promotes hair growth within six weeks.

However, this promise is not fulfilled, and consumers are tricked into buying a product which does not live up to its advertised benefits.

This type of false representation is considered misleading advertising.

In a separate instance, an advertisement for an eye clinic claims to enhance refractive power via surgical means.

Regrettably, a patient’s refractive power deteriorates after surgery, revealing the advertisement’s deceitful nature.

The advertisement promises that the surgery would remedy all vision impairments, which is not entirely truthful.

This type of deceitful advertising does not reveal vital information regarding the product’s constraints.

In both cases, these advertisements are misleading, because they make false or exaggerated claims about the product’s capabilities or benefits.

Clear disclaimers and accurate representations of a product’s effects and limitations are necessary.

This way, consumers could make informed decisions about their purchases.

• Uaatjo Kaurimuje is a consumer protection advocate and freelance writer. The views and opinions expressed here are her own.

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