Bollywood celebrities endorsements row

Online shopping is very popular mainly among the Indian youth because of the convenience it offers. In recent <g data-gr-id="62">times</g> new ways to save money while shopping online has taken the e-shopping trend to a new high. Shopping through deal a day coupon websites have quickly become a very popular option because of the large discounts that they offer. It also helps when a big celebrity name is attached to these sites.

 Celebrity endorsements though should not act as an authentic proof while shopping online. More often than not many websites use celebrity names without their prior permission in order to plug in their products. 

On closely inspecting the products of one such website it was revealed that the quality and the materials delivered by it were way below par as well as defective. 

On contacting the customer care of the company through e-mails and phone calls in order to demand refunds, there was no positive response. 

The company CEO on being contacted said that the complaint had to go through a customer policy, without providing any relevant answers to any queries.

 On checking the details of the <g data-gr-id="59">website</g> it was revealed that the website had a lot of celebrity endorsements which after further probe turned out to be a farce. Apparently the photos of these celebrities were taken without their consent. 

Celebrities Chitrangada Singh and Gauhar Khan, whose photos were used without prior permission, said that they were not associated with any online shopping website.

 Mandira Bedi <g data-gr-id="67">said</g> “I am shocked to hear about the incident and I can assure you that I am not associated or ever endorsed any company bearing that name. I don’t know why are they 

using my photographs,” while a spokesperson representing Sushmita Sen revealed, “Sushmita Sen was interested in endorsing or launching some online shopping material, but now she is not keen to be associated with any online platform and she has not endorsed  for <g data-gr-id="43">anyonline</g> company for sure.

 Other celebrities whose pictures and names that were also used are Vidya Balan, Madhuri Dixit, Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor, Sridevi, Kajol, Shraddha Kapoor Jacqueline Fernandez, Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan all of whom were unavailable for comments. Advocate Falguni Brahmbhatt said, “The accused website can be booked for cheating and a complaint can be lodged against them for infringement of copyrights and the IT Act.”