A consumer court in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar has imposed a fine of Rs20,000 on actors Govinda and Jackie Shroff for endorsing pain relief oil.
The company producing oil has also been fined. The court verdict was delivered on a complaint filed by a youth five years ago against a herbal oil firm and its two celebrity brand ambassadors.
The complainant had alleged that the oil endorsed by the actors did notprovide pain relief in 15 days as claimed in the advertisement.
In July 2012, Abhinav Agarwal, a Muzaffarnagar-based lawyer had ordered apain relief oil for his father Brijbhushan Agarwal, 70, for Rs 3,600 afterseeing an advertisement in the newspaper that promised full refund if the userfails to get visible results in 15 days. There was no pain relief even after 10days and Agarwal contacted a representative of the Madhya Pradesh-based companywho advised him to return the product for processing the refund.
However, the company failed to refund the amount and even started harassingAgarwal when he contacted them again.
"I bought the product because celebrities like Govinda and Jackie Shroff were promoting it. The company promised complete relief in 15 days. Everything turned out to be a fraud," said Abhinav who then had lodged the complaint with the consumer court.
The consumer court has ordered all five stakeholders – the company, Govinda, Jackie Shroff, Telemart Shopping Network Pvt Limited and Max Communications – to pay Rs 20,000 as compensation to the victim. It also ordered the firm to return Rs 3,600 paid by Agarwal with an interest of 9 percent per annum along with other legal expenses.
