Should Stars Face The Consequences Of Endorsing Products With False Claims?
FIRs were filed against Big B, Madhuri and Preity who endorsed Maggi, unaware of its harmful contents
A criminal case was filed on Tuesday in a district court in Muzaffarpur against officials of Maggi noodles-maker and film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit Nene and Preity Zinta, who are brand ambassadors of the “harmful” food item. The case was filed by lawyer Sudhir Kumar Ojha.
The court ordered the police to file an FIR against the Nestle officials as well as the stars. Following this case, the government has stated that under certain circumstances, a celeb endorsing a product will be held equally guilty as the product manufacturer if the said product defaults on its claims.
This has led to panic among B-town stars. All the star endorsers, including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Hema Malini, Kirron Kher and Paresh Rawal, have approached their respective lawyers to understand the implications of the decision.
While many stars lend their names to products, they do not necessarily get into the nitty-gritty of the functioning of the product. In such a scenario, one wonders if it is fair to bring them to book if the product fails to deliver upon its promise.
SpotboyE.com contacted leading legal practitioners in the city for their perspective.
Advocate Hitesh Jain, who has represented leading politicians and also actor Sanjay Dutt, explains, A star should be held responsible only if he was aware that the claims being made by the product are false and misleading. He should be penalised in the same proportion as the product manufacturers because they made their money by making people believe in something that doesn’t actually exist.
Advocate Dipesh Mehta adds, Stars have no reason to worry because they dont lab test a product before endorsing it. Its not possible for them to do that either. Amitabh Bachchan stated that he will be more careful before selecting a product to endorse.
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