Offshore Betting and Realty emerge as the most violative sectors: ASCI

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has released its Annual Complaints Report for the year 2024-2025. Over the past year, ASCI looked into 9,599 complaints and scrutinised 7,199 advertisements. 98% of the ads scrutinised required some form of modification.

This year, offshore betting emerged as the most violative sector, contributing to 43% of cases, followed by realty (24.9%), personal care (5.7%), healthcare (5.23%), and food and beverage (4.69%). Influencer violations contributed to 14% of the ads processed. 3347 of the total ads belonged to categories that are prohibited from being advertised at all by the law. This included 3081 ads of offshore illegal betting platforms, including 318 ads that pertained to influencers promoting such platforms; 233 ads that potentially violated the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act; 21 ads that promoted alcohol brands; and 12 ads promoted by unauthorised forex trading apps, which have been banned by RBI. 

ASCI investigated 1,015 influencer ads, of which 98% required modification. 121 violations were detected on LinkedIn, where professionals failed to disclose paid partnerships, prompting ASCI to issue a targeted advisory to ensure transparency on the platform. 

Of the ads processed, 89% came from ASCI’s proactive work, and the remaining 11% were complaints received from external sources. ASCI processed 659 advertisements flagged by the general public, an 83.5 % increase from the previous year. As noted over the years, digital remained at the forefront of our complaint processing, with 94.4% of the ads processed from the medium, followed by 2.6% from television and 2.4% from print. ASCI also monitored social media tags to take up violations flagged by consumers. The rise in public complaints reflects growing consumer awareness and trust in ASCI’s redressal mechanisms.

Manisha Kapoor, CEO and secretary general, ASCI, said, “This year has been one of meaningful collaborations, as we expanded our efforts to address critical areas like offshore betting/gambling and real estate violations, which are high-impact violations. These initiatives reflect a renewed commitment by ASCI to keep the advertising landscape accountable and responsible.  

Partha Sinha, chairman, ASCI, said, “In a world where ads chase clicks and claims fly faster than facts, someone has to stay sober. That’s where ASCI comes in. The rise in public complaints—and more importantly, how many advertisers chose to quietly comply—says a lot about where trust still lives. We’re not here to police creativity. We’re here to make sure the consumer isn’t the punchline. In the chaos of the digital bazaar, our job is to keep one stall honest.”