No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Online shopping, misleading advertising and consumer protection
Abstract
One of the most substantive developments in the delivery of marketing activities in recent years has undoubtedly been the emergence and growth of Internet shopping. This relatively new form of communication has revolutionised the buying and selling of products and services, enabling customers to select and import items – many of which are not available through local shop fronts – directly from vendors around the world with the click of a button, and often at a reduced price. Although online shopping has provided a new international landscape to conduct business, the use of this medium and the absence of face-to-face interactions has presented the law with numerous challenges in terms of the scope of consumer protection. This article examines the nature and extent of misleading and deceptive online advertising and looks at the degree to which common law and legislation have evolved to deal with false, deceptive or misleading advertising on the Internet.
... Advertising is the most popular means of reaching potential customers with information about a product (Kariyawasam and Wigley, 2017). It is used as a tool to grow businesses. ...
... Whenadvertisersengageinmisleadingorfalseadvertising,consumerchoiceis affected because consumers are unfairly convinced to believe in the messages of the advertisers, which affect their judgment. Misleading advertising either compels consumers to purchase items at a higher price or at a lesser quality than what they wanted, or to purchase the wrong product or service (Kariyawasam and Wigley, 2017). Suchadvertisementsviolatetheinterestsofconsumersbysuggestingthattheproductor service has unique qualities. ...
... They have been exposed to many false or misleading claims when consuming advertisements for products and services. Consumers are likely to abandon the brands to which they are loyal if they discover that businesses are not truthful or are misleading in theiradvertising.Thisexplainswhycompaniesthathavetrueadvertisementsalwayshav e asignificantmarketshare.Thus,ourstudysuggeststhatmisleadingandfalseadvertising changesconsumers"behaviourbycausingthemnottotrustanykindofadvertising,even genuine ones (Kariyawasam and Wigley, 2017). They are forced to go through a long consumerpurchasingprocessduringwhichtheyneedtoverifyinformationbeforemakin g a decision about whether to buy the service or product. ...
False advertising is the use of false, misleading, or unproven information to advertise products to consumers. The advertising frequently does not disclose its source. One form of false advertising is to claim that a product has a health benefit or contains vitamins or minerals that it in fact does not. Many governments use regulations to control false advertising. It might be tempting to deceive in advertisements not only that could attract new customers but also that they might buy products and subscribe to your services. However, usually, this strategy is bad for the future of company, and it might possibly hinder business' success. Companies whose only goal is to rack up as many profits as possible, tend to use advertisements that may conceal some costs, omit important facts, or use misleading images, in a bid to get customers to buy a service or product. This kind of marketing isn't helpful, and it will deprive consumers of the accurate information they need to make good, well-informed decisions. The regulations on advertisement and marketing illegalises use of false or misleading representation or symbol for quality, quantity, data of manufacture, methods of use, content, price, place of origin, the manufacture, processor or place for a product either in advertisement or another platform. In this study, it has been found that while misleading advertisements tend to provide overtly more positive information than is necessary, such positivity tend to result in negative experience for customers. This study has explored the importance of enhancing marketing activities through truthful facts, to ensure that the functions of the organisation (especially outward facing activities like marketing) are believable and thus helpful to customers to make the right decisions.
... The effort to entice buyers is often made up of many claims whose truth is often hard to establish. Advertising is the most popular means where potential customers are reached with about a product (Kariyawasam and Wigley, 2017). Advertisement is used as a tool to grow the business. ...
... When advertisers submit misleading, false and fake advertisement, consumer choice is affected, because consumers are unfairly convinced to believe in the idea of the advertisers which affect their judgment. Misleading advertisement compels consumers to end up purchasing items at a higher price or at a quality less than what they wanted or simply, the wrong product or service (Kariyawasam and Wigley, 2017). The advertisements violate the interest of the consumers by suggesting that the product or service has unique quality. ...
... This explains why companies that have true advertisement always have a significant market share. Thus, the study suggests that misleading and false advertisement changes consumer behaviour making them not to trust any kind of advertisements, even the genuine ones (Kariyawasam and Wigley, 2017). ...
... Others point out to digital clutter, which influences information overload [74]. Advertisements and pop-ups are also reported as sources accounting for clutter and stealing users' attention [7,30,37]. Web pages are dynamic, which makes information retrieval challenging to users, as it is difficult for users to go back to the exact same page location [78]. ...
... Web contents have been researched less, but ads and popups tion and disorganization of browser elements and information. We as one type of interactive elements (e.g., [7,30,37]) have been conceptualized four forms of browsing clutter from the interview associated with clutter in previous studies. Search and navigation study and the EFA model of our survey items: 1) Amount of tabs have been extensively investigated in HCI (e.g., [17,43,56,78]), with and windows, 2) web page elements such as Ads and Pop-ups, 3) commonality that search and navigation place demands on users' Navigation within and across web pages, and 4) information Search. ...
... However, the other side of that coin is that an attractive verbal and visual framing of the product may lead some consumers to take factually misguided decisions relative to such essential product properties as ingredients, nutrition and health benefits, origin, organic farming, animal welfare, climate impact, and so on. Such perspectives have received the most versatile attention in socio-political and regulatory contexts where the problem is traditionally referred to as misleading food labelling 1 (Albert, 2014;Grabowicz & Czaja-Bulsa, 2019;IMCO, 2012;Kanter et al., 2018;Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017;Kelly et al., 2009;MacMaoláin, 2007MacMaoláin, , 2015. ...
... misleading or not often comes down to whether it is consistent with current legislation and day-to-day administrative and court practices and/or whether adjustments through legislative intervention or self-regulation are needed (e.g. Hastak & Mazis, 2011;IMCO, 2012;Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017;. ...
The chapter reports an experimental study based on the ShopTrip set-up which explores the effect of low-fat claims on consumers’ purchasing decisions and post-shopping expectations. The results suggest that the presence of a low-fat claim on the packaging front tends to prompt health-oriented consumers to choose the corresponding product even when the alternative products available on the shelf are equally low or lower in fat according to the declared product facts.KeywordsLow-fat claimsSimulated e-shoppingReal-market productsReal-time purchasing behaviourHealth consciousnessHalo effectsBrand biasMiscommunication
... Even though the pop-up ads have greater attention and click-through rate of internet users, they can also lead to the negative attitude of consumers due to its interference in the task of the user of a website. For instance, internet users reported that pop-up ads are more interfering than the other form of advertisement while web browsing (Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017). There are many internet or online advertisements, including banners, skyscrapers, pop-ups, interstitials, wallpaper, and floating. ...
... There are many internet or online advertisements, including banners, skyscrapers, pop-ups, interstitials, wallpaper, and floating. The pop-up ads are the most common sense of anger and annoyance (Harms et al., 2019;Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017). Furthermore, another study reported a negative attitude of the consumer towards the pop-up ads compared to the other six advertising formats. ...
The study aimed to investigate consumer behaviour towards pop-up ads. The study is quantitative in nature and carries out a survey questionnaire. The study sample consisted of 100 active users of social media (i.e., Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok and gaming application). The data collected were analysed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. Moreover, the study used descriptive statistical analyses, a t-test was used to check the different impact of independent variables and finally ANOVA test was used to find the impact of more than one independent variable on the dependent one. The results of the study showed that Snapchat (30.47%) was the widely used application among the participants and an average user consumes social media more than 4 hours a day which makes it 40% of the participants. The study also found that participants disagreed that they always look for pop-up ads (M = 1.71, Std = 0.92). Also, the study found no significant difference in perceptions of respondents towards pop-up ads with regard to gender. The ANOVA test revealed that educational level (0.627) didn’t show any significant difference towards the opinions of participants about pop-up ads whereas, age level (0.50) and monthly income (0.001) showed significant difference towards the opinions of participants about pop-up ads. The study concluded that pop-up ads do not actually impact consumer behaviour positively and are not the affective means of attracting consumers.
... Suatu tindakan perdagangan adalah dianggap sebagai mengelirukan sekiranya ia mengandungi maklumat palsu yang sama sekali tidak benar, termasuklah persembahan keseluruhan, yang menipu atau boleh menyebabkan penipuan terhadap rata-rata pengguna walaupun ia secara faktanya ia adalah benar.Tindakan mengelirukan juga dianggap berlaku sekiranya ia menyebabkan pengguna mengambil keputusan untuk membeli disebabkan tindakan tersebut (Artikel 6). Selain itu, tindakan pengabaian maklumat yang mengelirukan dianggap berlaku sekiranya peniaga bertindak mengabaikan maklumat yang diperlukan rata-rata pengguna yang turut menyebabkan pengguna membuat keputusan pembelian disebabkan wujudnya pengabaian maklumat tersebut (Artikel 7).Malah, sekiranya peniaga tersebut bertindak menyembuyikan atau membekalkan maklumat yang tidak jelas, samar-samar, tidak difahami atau gagal dalam mengenalpasti maksud amalan perdagangan komersialnya dan keadaan ini menyebabkan atau boleh menyebabkan rata-rata pengguna mengambil keputusan untuk membeli, ia turut dianggap sebagai perbuatan yang mengelirukan (Artikel 7) (Directive 2005/29 Concerning Unfair Business-to-Consumer Commercial Practices in the Internal Market ('Unfair Commercial Practices Directive') Manakala di Australia, Australian Consumer Law 2010 tidak memperuntukkan secara jelas peruntukan mengenai transaksi elektronik namun menurutKariyawasam dan Wigley (2017), Seksyen 2 akta ini turut merangkumi ruang lingkup medium e-dagang(Kariyawasam & Wigley 2017). Peruntukan ini memberi penegahan teradap perbuatan tipuan atau mengelirukan dalam sebarang transaksi perdagangan. ...
... Perbuatan 'tipuan' pula mempunyai makna yang lebih sempit dan mendalam. Sesuatu tindakan tersebut dikira sebagai tipuan atau mengelirukan walaupun hanya mempunyai kebarangkalian yang rendah(Kariyawasam & Wigley 2017). Hal ini kerana di bawah peruntukan akta ini, peniaga dalam talian mempunyai tanggungjawab yang sama seperti peniaga konvensional dalam menjalankan perniagaan yang telus dan jujur.Merujuk contoh perundangan di Amerika Syarikat, Kesatuan Eropah dan Australia, masingmasing telah menggunapakai satu akta atau arahan khusus untuk memberi perincian yang lebih jelas mengenai tindakan tipuan atau mengelirukan melalui Seksyen 5(a) Federal Trade Commission Act pindaan 2006, Directive 2005/29 Concerning Unfair Business-to-Consumer Commercial Practices in the Internal Market ('Unfair Commercial Practices Directive') dan Australian Consumer Law 2010. ...
It is widely known that online shopping has several advantages including time and energy-saving as well as its diversity in making choices. In spite of that, online purchasing activities are prone to a certain number of misuses, particularly to the exposure of fraud and deception by online merchants. Therefore, this article intended to address the necessity for a specific and clear definition of deceit in the context of online purchases. The need for up-to-date legal provisions is crucial to ensure consumers’ protection from any acts of deception by irresponsible merchants, taking into account the act of misleading consumers through unclear definitions and elements of deceit within online purchases in accordance with existing laws. Using content analysis methodology, the existing legal provisions on fraud have been reviewed by focusing on Section 17 of the Contracts Act 1950 in Malaysia alongside regulations on e-commerce fraud practices implemented in the United States, European Union, and Australia. Furthermore, a review of literature from past scholars is included to evaluate their point of view towards e-commerce deception. This article finds that there is a need to provide a distinct and precise definition of deceit and fraud against online purchases through existing legal provisions. It is suggested that Section 17 of the Contracts Act 1950 should include terms that denote its application in the electronic context apart from improving and clarifying the definition and elements of existing provisions to ensure the protection of consumers from the acts of deceit in online purchases.
... The hesitancy in the generation to the endorsement of social media influencers in the local setting stem from the overarching crime rates and overexploitation of the black community in the country (Bateman, 2019;2024). Identity theft, phishing has surged in the vulnerable black communities compromises the reliability and authenticity of the already existing township influencers and most generation Y followers have fallen prey, hence the 158 | International Journal of Academe and Industry Research, Volume 5 Issue 4 reluctance in the endorsement of social media influencers (Kariyawasam, & Wigley, 2017;Hund, 2023;Mupangavanhu, & Kerchhoff, 2023). Apart from criminality occurrence in the local market, other impeding factors includes, adequate support, infrastructure, market access and exposure and collaboration among businesses is lacking in this communities and hence, the use of social media influencers does not proliferate in the region (Enaifoghe & Vezi-Magigaba, 2023;Enaifogh et al., 2023). ...
In the current fast paced competitive digital marketing era, businesses explore every possibility to differentiate their brand, retain customers and remain resilient. Contrary to the popular usage of conventional celebrity endorsements, modern businesses are often turning to social media influencers for their brand marketing initiatives, using popular social media platforms. Currently, it is unknown how successful local non-celebrity influencer endorsements are in building brand equity among generation Y. The purpose of this paper was to explore the perceptions of generation Y customers on building local beauty brand equity through influencer marketing. A questionnaire using Google form was given to generation Y customers, recruited using a convenience sampling technique. A total of sixty-two (62) generation Y customers were recruited in the study. The results indicated that only few of the generation Y customers (n = 16; 25.81%) had positive perception about building local beauty brand equity through influencer marketing, while (n = 28; 45.16%) said that influencer marketing is sustainable. Furthermore, 45.55% (n=27) felt that influencer marketing is important for beauty brand industries. The study concludes that authenticity is a crucial factor in determining the impact of influencer marketing on building brand equity. Moreover, authentic influencers who genuinely interact with their audience and conform to local preferences greatly contribute to fostering strong brand connections.
... Purity & Paul (2021) study stated that users of pop-up ads were not much influenced by these ads though they liked such ads. According to Kariyawasam & Wigley (2017) study the findings showed that high interference of pop-up ads than other forms of online advertisement has caused an adverse attitude among users of pop-up ads. Vincent and Ni (2020) study revealed that there is an inverse relation between purchase decision and pop-up ads. ...
In the era of digitalization, social media platforms have become a vital and imperative channel for doing businesses to connect with their target audience. However, with the ever-increasing competition, to remain successful in drawing potential customers attention especially, in the virtual world has become a huge challenge to marketers. A popular mode of digital/online advertisement is through Pop-up advertisements/ads. Such pop-up ads can enhance a brand's visibility and awareness on social media users. A highly targeted, contextual, well-timed and strategized pop-up ads can help on generating a desired course of action of users such as making a final purchase decision through social media sites. Using pop-up ads can have lasting effects on the online buyers retention thereby reducing their attrition rate. This research study is conducted to explore how pop-up advertisements/ads can effectively contribute to brand's success, capture the attention of social media users, engage them actively and create a positive experience through out. Further, this study tries to outline some marketing strategies in order to maximize the impact of pop-up advertisements in the context of social media platforms and provides insights in these related areas.
... There is no doubt that influencers and social media can reach a wide range of consumers globally. It is undeniable that social media influencers play a growing role in influencing consumers' buying choices; however, the prevalence of dishonest marketing and misinformation online poses a significant problem for shoppers (Kariyawasam and Wigley, 2017). Influencer marketing, while effective, presents significant challenges in terms of transparency and consumer protection. ...
The phenomenon of influencer marketing is a growing trend in which companies engage social media influencers to recommend their brands. These influencers create content related to the brand in their posts, which they are remunerated for, and they foster interactive relationships with their followers. The objective of such influencers is to disseminate personal experiences, respond to comments, or enhance engagement. Nevertheless, concerns have been raised by consumers regarding the potential negative effects of these commercials. They may perceive them as fraudulent or dishonest, which could potentially undermine the effectiveness of the campaign. This study, which focuses on the negative sides of influencer marketing, illustrates how followers perceive influencers' misleading techniques. This research aims to see how influencer appeal affects consumers' purchase intentions in exaggerated advertising generated by influencers. The data was gathered through an online survey. 388 valid responses were received from Instagram users who were active. SPSS and AMOS programs were utilized to assess the data and examine hypotheses. This study is unique because no previous research has looked into how exaggerated and misleading advertising from influencers impacts consumers' intention to buy. This research closes a crucial gap by examining the influence of influencer attractiveness and the consequences of exaggerated and misleading influencer promotions on the intention to make a purchase.
... Consumer protection can be summarized as regulation over wrongful acts committed by manufacturers or sellers in performing business activities to prevent a negative impact on consumers (Elengold, 2019). The prohibition of unethical acts by a handful of manufacturers or sellers is much needed (Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017) to protect consumers from suffering any loss or harm during or after a business transaction. Nevertheless, the element of consumer protection that can be translated into a country's legal framework still depends on the country's background and can be applied in different contexts. ...
Consumer protection is an aspect which aims to ensure that consumers are always given adequate protection from a legal perspective and also to increase the level of consumers’ trust in the quality of goods and services, which will, in turn, contribute to the economic growth of a nation. However, today, issues surrounding product liability cases are no longer uncommon, where consumers or third parties face the risk of suffering injury or property damage due to the existence of defects in a particular product. Thus, the main objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between consumer protection and product liability from both civil and Islamic perspectives. The type of research being carried out is doctrinal legal research. The data sources, including case law and statutory provision, are analyzed using content and critical analysis methods. The results show that according to civil and Islamic perspectives, consumer protection in the context of product liability plays a crucial role in conferring legal protection to consumers who are adversely affected by the use of particular products that pose a risk to health and safety. Further, the authors expect that the results of this study shall contribute new and significant knowledge by proving that the aspect of consumer protection is not only related to product liability issues from a civil perspective, but it is also can be evaluated from the Islamic perspective, which the earlier researchers have rarely discussed.
... To improve the validity of information and reduce the frequency of misleading advertisements in today's digital marketplace, Xiaohongshu must use many measures to ensure the information provided to its audience is both credible and correct. According to Kariyawasam et al., the perceived deceitfulness of advertising methods is dependent on how the target audience perceives and interprets the advertisement's message [12]. As a result, Xiaohongshu should follow Twitter's lead in increasing transparency and user confidence by establishing a clear content policy and providing succinct explanations and justifications for material removal or flagging. ...
Xiaohongshu, a rising lifestyle-sharing platform, has garnered significant popularity among femal. Despite recent controversies over false traffic, it remains a pivotal influence on femals shopping decisions. This study aims to explore why Xiaohongshu continues to be influential in the consumer decisions of femal after false traffic. This paper used a case study to analyze a survey of 200 femal from diverse backgrounds to understand their methods of gathering shopping information and making purchase decisions on social platforms, focusing on Xiaohongshu's unique attributes. First, the study reveals that enhanced, deceptive content on the platform frequently persuades women, suggesting a need for improved information authenticity, consumer education, and self-regulation in advertising. Secondly, digital influencers and trends heavily influence the platform's young audience, highlighting the importance of encouraging influencers to share genuine experiences over mere advertising. Lastly, the natural trust engendered by word of mouth (WOM) and user-generated content (UGC), critical features of Xiaohongshu, underscores the platform's strategy to bolster UGC and WOM credibility. In conclusion, Xiaohongshu plays a crucial role in the shopping decisions of contemporary female consumers, underscoring its significance in the social media landscape.
... Consumers' judgment is impacted when advertisers use deceptive advertising tactics to persuade them to trust their statements. This type of advertising either compels customers to pay more for goods or services they don't need or steers them toward unintended purchases (Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017). According to certain interpretations, deceptive advertising refers to obfuscation or a lack of information regarding the characteristics of the product and its potential applications (Hasan et al. 2011). ...
As a result of buying the promoted goods or services, consumers are being exposed to a rising amount of deceptive advertising content, which is very often promoted by influencers in social media. The quality or advantages of using these products and/or services are frequently exaggerated in these advertising statements, since today it has become very easy to manipulate images and videos with the help of applications that are widely available on the Internet. Consumers, on the other hand, are not always sure whether these are genuine personal recommendations or commissioned advertisements. Fortunately, aware of all the problems that such misleading advertising can cause for consumers, there are many foreign government initiatives to regulate this area legally. Legislation has recently been introduced in many countries (such as France, United Kingdom, and Norway), to which influencers have an obligation to disclose any connection to the business, products, or services that are being offered (and to adequately indicate and mark paid advertisement). Also, these laws mandate that any image in which the shape, size or skin of the body has been altered by retouching or other modifications, must contain an "edited" mark. If there is a violation, influencers can face a fine or prison sentence of up to two years, or even a complete ban on their business. This obligation is emphasized in numerous rules and laws in developed countries as an effort to protect customers from unfair or deceptive activities when purchasing and using goods and services. This is certainly a path that should be followed by other countries, including the Republic of Serbia, in which, so far, little attention has been paid to this problem.
KEYWORDS: deceptive advertising, social media influencers, consumers,
influencer marketing laws.
... False advertisements that engages in the act of untruthfulness affects a consumer's choice. The consumer's choice is affected due to the fact that these consumers were unfairly convinced and misinformed by the message that advertisers displayed and that affects their judgments [20]. ...
... As a form of commercial publicity, commercial advertisement promotes goods, services or ideas by introducing them to increase consumers' knowledge of goods and desire for their consumption. Commercial publicity is a wide-ranging concept, including traditional TV advertisements, information release, online advertisements, live broad-casts, and some other media (Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017). With the increasing proportion of new commercial publicity methods in market competition, online commercial publicity, consisting of product endorsements or ratings of online stores, has attracted more and more attention (Zhang et al., 2021b). ...
Even though urban renewal has attracted much attention in recent years, relatively few studies focus on the sustainability of urban renewal projects, which is surprising given the associated economic benefits. To fill this gap, we review 31 typical cases of urban renewal in China that have existed for over 10 years and utilize fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify causal configurations that lead to a high level of stakeholder satisfaction. Our findings show that: (1) there are four antecedent configurations that lead to the sustainability of urban renewal of urban renewal (these are: ~ preservation of history and culture * differentiation * project reformation * ~ incremental innovation; ~ preservation of history and culture * differentiation * commercial publicity * incremental innovation; preservation of history and culture * commercial publicity * ~ project reformation * incremental innovation; and preservation of history and culture * differentiation * ~ commercial publicity * project reformation * incremental innovation); (2) compared with other conditions, differentiation and incremental innovation play more important roles in the sustainability of urban renewal; and (3) not only the improvement of the environment but also the operation and management of projects should be considered carefully. This paper contributes to urban renewal literature and offers practical suggestions for sustainable urban development.
... , both domestic and foreign trade (export-import). So far, trade has been carried out conventionally, the buyer comes to the seller's place and makes a direct sale and purchase transaction(Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017).The development of an increasingly developing era makes everyone want to transact other than conventionally, namely online. The rapid development in the world of technology has made it possible for everyone to make transactions online with all the conveniences, from shopping, transferring funds, cooperation agreements, and so on. ...
Trading on the web exchanges done unite venders (business entertainers) and shoppers (purchasers). These exchanges happen by means of sites or locales, correspondence by email, or other web-based entertainment, and installments can be through the web, portable banking, or moves among banks and by means of the smaller than usual market that has been given. However, along with the development of people's buying patterns, it raises many problems including untrusted sellers starting from inappropriate products, and buyers do not get goods. The exploration approach technique, specialists utilize a regularizing research approach, since this examination utilizes an exploration idea, evaluative exploration structure, and prescriptive exploration. Since in this study we need to evaluate a legal guideline, particularly in regards to buyer security and electronic exchange regulations, this exploration likewise means to give counsel on what to do plans to get most extreme critical thinking, particularly about parts of the lawful connection between the client and the dealer and shopper legitimate security during the time spent trading exchanges on the web. Legitimate security for shoppers overall can be done at the time before the exchange (no contention/pre-buy), at the time the exchange happens, and after the exchange (struggle/post-buy). The legitimate assurance structure for buyers before web based business exchanges happen is found in Regulation Number 8 of 1999 concerning Shopper Security.
... When advertisers engage in deceptive (misleading or false) advertising, they influence consumers to believe the advertiser's messages, which affects their judgment. This kind of advertising either forces consumers to buy products or services at a higher price (or lower quality) or to buy the wrong product or service than what they wanted (Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017). However, consumers can distinguish between false and true advertising depending on their ability and incentives to evaluate false claims. ...
The Internet world is becoming a place that no longer offers users only communication and entertainment, but has also become a place where there is an increasing number of malicious scams, which can cause great financial and emotional damage to users. There is a lot of pressure on people to live up to the imposed social norms and expectations, which primarily concerns beauty, clothing, that is, products that simply must be had, so that the individual does not feel excluded from the group. Aware of such conformist tendencies of a large number of people, companies often resort to deceptive (misleading) advertising messages in order to reach naive consumers. These messages often make untrue claims about the quality or usefulness of products and services. Online applications, which are widely available today, are also used to enhance the images and videos of supermodels promoting brands in such advertisements. Increasingly, social media influencers are being hired to launch this kind of misleading content. They recommend products to their followers that companies have paid them to promote, which they probably wouldn't use themselves. Influencers on social media are perceived by consumers as creators of public opinion and credible sources of information that can be trusted. However, when they come into possession of a product advertised with such deceptive advertising, consumers realize that they have been deceived, which results in their disappointment, anger and financial loss. Recently, in many countries, this kind of deceptive advertising has become increasingly common, both in the real world and in the online environment, which is why companies are increasingly being sanctioned for such misleading activities. In the race for higher profits and better sales, companies are not aware that by such action can cause great damage to themselves, which is primarily reflected in the loss of good reputation and trust of consumers.
Keywords: Deceptive Advertising, Consumers, Online Environment.
... Due to the increase in online shopping, debates on Internet advertising have come into prominence with a particular reference to deceptive contents. Recent researches show that the Internet is utilised as a unique digital platform providing a fertile environment for those who tend to deceive (Held & Germelmann, 2018;Xiao & Benbasat, 2011) and, hence, the use of misleading and deceptive content in online shopping is on the rise (Aköz et al., 2020;Grazioli & ]arvenpaa, 2003a; Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017;Mitra et al., 2008). Moreover, existing laws that are supposed to protect consumers are criticised for not being efficient enough (Wu & Geylani, 2020), especially in this rapidly developing digital medium (Aditya, 2001;Arai, 2013;Boush et al., 2009, p. 192). ...
The debate on deceptive advertising is getting more critical alongside the proliferation of the Internet and global e-commerce. This study aims to portray the nature and variances of deceptive tactics employed in online shopping sites by utilising an original database and a content analysis. Findings verified that the use of online deceptive advertising practices is common among Turkish online-shopping sites. First and foremost, the study displayed the high propensity of advertisers to omit or obscure information within the online ad content. The findings also provided empirical evidence on the correlational nature of involvement level and price with the deception levels.
... This requires deceived consumers to take cross-border legal action, meaning that costs may exceed losses and plaintiffs may not receive adequate compensation. 68 In fact, claims from misled consumers in Australia against influencers who live outside of Australia and post advertising content for foreign businesses would be futile. 69 The ACCC provides an online shopping consumer guide that lists factors consumers should be aware of when dealing with online sellers located in Australia or abroad. ...
In traditional forms of advertising, celebrities were often used to promote goods and services, particularly in the areas of fashion and beauty. However, the emergence of social media has dramatically transformed this advertising industry. Social media influencers are the new celebrities guiding consumer behaviours and choices. While social media marketing has been the subject of extensive scholarly consideration, the legal liability of social media influencers has been the subject of limited academic discourse. This article will examine whether consumers' rights are effectively protected by implementation of Australian laws in the social media environment. It focuses on the employment status of influencers so as to analyse the adequacy of applying liability theories to any misleading advertising by them. It will then explore a number of enforcement measures and available litigation avenues for consumers to utilise in protecting their rights.
... Unfortunately, the huge investment to grasp virtual consumers has induced online sellers to go no further towards the understanding of consumer behavior [40]. For instance, some researchers have concluded that although online shopping has provided a new international landscape to conduct business, the use of this medium and the absence of face-to-face interactions has presented the law with numerous challenges in terms of the scope of consumer protection [41].Some researchers investigated the impact of factors affecting consumers' trust in online product reviews and suggest that both argument quality and perceived similarity contribute to increased trust, but in varying degrees [42]. Moreover, in the case of payments that are automatically processed, such as online cashback, a benefit of separating a discount payment from the purchase event may arise out of positive spillover effects on future purchases rather than from imperfect redemption behavior [43]. ...
This empirical study contributes towards identifying the effect of both fake and real discounts in the Indian marketing environment. A common but unsustainable practice in India is to increase the selling price and then offer a discount on the product. Increasing sales based on fake discount pricing strategy is a primary business development objective in India. The discounts, however, vary across store type and time and are based on product features. The selected databases were collected from the top five Indian e-commerce portals in terms of volume of sales, and from popular brick and motor outlets of tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India. The empirical results indicate that offers based on price in India had an impact of 2.8 times higher than the actual quality of the product. The outcomes suggest that marked price has a significant impact on consumer’s behavior. The results also indicate the existence of a strong correlation between trapping fake discounts and purchase by deceiving and persuading customers in India. Research is empirical in nature and respondents have been selected based on purposive sampling. The study is limited to tier 2 and 3 cities of India for 250 days, and the results are applicable to online and offline retail stores.
... Fourth, as online shopping continues to gain importance in Germanywith numbers increasing from 15% of all shoppers in 2002 to 45% of all shoppers in 2013 (Statista, 2017c)online shopping regulations also increase, which leads to better consumer protection and customer rights (Kariyawasam & Wigley, 2017). Additionally, a majority of respondents in our sample referred to online shopping at Amazon (http://www.amazon.de). ...
This study explores consumer socialization between parents and adolescents, aiming to provide a holistic understanding of primary, reverse, and reciprocal learning. Focus group interviews, combined with a diary study among 20 families with adolescents aged 11–16 years, demonstrate that consumer socialization is a dynamic, multidirectional process involving primary, reverse, and reciprocal socialization. Our first key conclusion advocates for a more holistic approach to consumer socialization, urging researchers to expand beyond traditional domains like product choice and brand preferences to include broader areas such as online shopping, where digital competency is crucial. Adolescents, as digital natives, contribute significantly to reverse socialization, guiding their parents through online shopping and helping them navigate digital consumption challenges. Additionally, our findings highlight the role of reciprocal socialization as a key mechanism for facilitating knowledge exchange and strengthening family bonds in consumption decisions. Our second key conclusion contrasts the formal, verbal nature of primary socialization, particularly in the online context, with the informal, observational learning processes characterizing reverse socialization. These findings not only expand the scope of consumer socialization research but also highlight the evolving nature of family dynamics in the digital era.
Recently an order was passed by District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission of Indore (Madhya Pradesh) against online coaching Company Byju and celebrity superstar Shahrukh Khan. Priyanka Dikhsit an innocent IAS aspirant enrolled for Byju's coaching classes in 2021 after getting influenced by their advertisement. But, after paying the fees she found herself cheated and lodged a complaint in consumer forum. The court given the verdict in the favor of Priyanka and the defendants are directed to return the fees along with interest of 12% per annum. Additionally the litigation charges USD 59.84 and compensation of mental sufferings (USD 599.35) is also to be charged from the defendants. Sometimes back, another famous celebrity Akshay Kumar made news by publicly apologizing and stepping down as brand ambassador of Vimal Eliachi. He made his decision after receiving criticism for endorsing a Pan Masala brand. The actor announced to donate the whole fees charged for public welfare causes when people excessively started posting negative comments about him. In another case, a criticism was raised against celebrities Rashmika Mandanna and Vicky Kaushal for promoting vulgarity, inappropriate content and objectifying men in the advertisement of an inner clothes of Macho. These three are among the latest heard cases of unfair advertisements by the celebrity brand ambassadors, but the list is endless. Actually in India, fraudulent and bait advertising is a very common practice followed by advertisers to influence the innocent consumers. The present paper makes an attempt to study the evolution, present status, regulatory framework and trends of Indian celebrity endorsements. Further, the paper evaluates the recent cases of deceptive advertisement in India, various ethical and unethical issues involved in celebrity endorsements and its impact on the consumer.
Purpose
Advertisements for dietary supplements (DS) often include misleading claims regarding their health benefits. In this study, the authors designed an online advertisement for plant-based DS featuring misleading claims and investigated its effects on mature Chinese consumers before and after revealing the false claims. A consumer involvement framework was developed to evaluate the mediating effect of advertising involvement (AI) on the correlation between product involvement (PI), situational involvement (SI) and purchase intention (PI).
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 467 mature adults aged over 40 years who resided in China's Yangtze River Delta region and had experience in purchasing DS online were recruited. Relevant data were collected through an online survey and analysed through structural equation modelling.
Findings
Cognitive PI was positively correlated with both SI and PI and SI was positively correlated with PI. AI negatively moderated the correlation between affective PI and SI. Both cognitive PI and AI were positively correlated with PI and the correlation was mediated through SI.
Originality/value
DS consumption is a rational decision-making process driven by utilitarian motives. Consumers who are aware of the misleading claims adopt a cautious evaluation approach and place themselves in specific purchase situations before making a purchase decision. This study advances the literature by incorporating the consideration of misleading advertisements into the consumer involvement model within the context of online DS consumption. The study's findings provide insights to intensify monitoring of false advertisements in the DS industry and design effective consumer education programmes.
This paper discusses various types of misleading statistical information in marketing promotion and explains why it is harmful for customers. The paper also studies the customers’ attitudes to such misinformation and capabilities of managing it. A survey was used to collect data from 210 respondents’ attitudes to analyzing data when purchasing products and 2) studied whether these respondents could properly evaluate such information found in promotional messages. The respondents were students in a university and they were supposed to have sufficient mathematical and logical capabilities of managing statisical information. Respondents showed positive attitudes to data investigation involved in the purchase decision although they lacked the relevant knowledge to process the misleading statisical information. In general, they might not make correct decisions in various deceptive situations. Relevant product information is usually necessary for customers when they have to consider and buy important products. Statistical information can support objective decision making but the misleading one is harmful for customers. More statistical knowledge and other relevant skills are required to enhance the ability of processing misleading information in marketing promotion. The paper suggests a number ways to acquire such knowledge and skills.
False advertising has many negative consequences for the protection of consumer rights and wellbeing. In emerging economies in particular, false advertising has been widespread across business sectors and products due to inadequate public policy and ineffective law enforcement. Since the COVID-19 global pandemic has spread around the world, people have become more dependent on e-commerce for purchasing goods and services, and the negative impact has become historically high with increasing number of advertising and sales cyber-fakes However, prior studies have not focused on consumers’ perceived deception and information asymmetry in false advertising in general, and the consequent implications for public policy in controlling and eliminating such problems, specifically in emerging economies. This study focuses on the example of China as a leading emerging economy to investigate the relevant issues and contribute to extant knowledge by linking separate paradigms with a new holistic conceptual framework that identifies the key elements of contextual factors, consumers’ perceived deception and information asymmetry, the causes and impacts, and the expected policy implications for further prevention.
The chapter addresses the divide between marketing approaches to food labelling and marketing, which rely extensively on empirically founded behavioural and cognitive insights, and socio-political and regulatory approaches, which tend to be primarily concerned with legal rule-making per se. In continuation of earlier debates, the chapter stresses the need for a more dynamic interplay between the two domains and sets the scene for the contributions to facilitating such developments presented in this book.KeywordsFood marketingFood labellingLegal regulationUnfair commercial practicesEmpirical evidenceSocial sciencesCognitive sciencesBehavioural sciences
Research Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic threated public health and safety and led to a number of virus-related fraud schemes. We surveyed over 2,200 American adults to investigate their experiences with COVID-19-related frauds. Our goals were to better understand fraud targeting and victimization, as well as the impacts of fraud on victims. Over a quarter of our sample reported purchasing either a COVID-19-related product or a service, yet 42.5% reported feeling targeted for fraud. Being a target of COVID-19 frauds is significantly linked to one's routine activities, however it is one's level of self-control that more strongly predicts victimization. COVID-19 anxieties mediate the impact of self-control on purchasing.
Policy Implications
Legal interventions and increased regulations surrounding advertising are a potential mechanism for protecting consumers, yet “soft” interventions that interrupt routine activities might be more useful and applicable. The use of white-lists and publicly available websites that allow e-commerce sites and sellers to be verified would help enable higher levels of self-guardianship. It is also important to provide continuous and clear messaging about what is being done to protect consumers.
The current research examines how the social processing capability of theory of mind (i.e., ToM; the ability to understand others’ intentions) is employed when evaluating potentially persuasive marketing communications. Specifically, Study 1 reveals that ToM negatively influences product evaluations, as mediated by advertising skepticism. Study 2 replicates these findings with a company’s customer database. Study 3 manipulates advertisement transparency, showing that highly transparent communications reduce skepticism and increase product evaluations. Lastly, Study 4 examines boundary conditions, revealing that ToM influences product evaluations more so in evaluation of marketing communications for publicly versus privately consumed products.
This study examines the timing of pop-up advertising appearance and its effect on perceived intrusiveness, advertising irritation and advertising avoidance. Experiment was designed to build a virtual Internet environment (including the main content on the webpage and a pop-up ad) and to manipulate the timing of the pop-up advertising appearance. Participants were invited to participate in two experiments, and then assigned to a specific target browsing task; their advertising browsing activities during the task were measured. In order to measure their cognitive advertising avoidance, an eye-tracking device was utilised to gain objective and accurate psychological information. Results showed that earlier pop-up advertising appearances are associated with a lower consumer fixation count and fixation length; in contrast, pop-up advertising that appears later is associated with a higher fixation count and fixation length. This study attempts to gain more objective and accurate psychological data by using an eye-tracking device to collect information about eye movements associated with the appearance of pop-up advertising to better analyse consumer behaviours towards them. These results offer insights to Internet advertisers and Internet platform companies on how to provide more efficient Internet advertising.
Purpose
Within a larger mandate of reviewing the key global trends concerning consumer protection in the electronic commerce (e-commerce) literature, this study aims to study the legal framework concerning e-commerce and consumer protection in the Sultanate of Oman and to analyse the current regulations concerning e-commerce and consumer protection.
Design/methodology/approach
This study followed the normative legal research approach and resorted to the desk research process to facilitate content analysis of literature containing consumer protection legislation and regulatory provisions in Oman in particular and the rest of the world in general.
Findings
The study reveals that consumer protection initiatives in Oman are well entrenched for offline transactions, but are relatively new and limited for e-commerce. In spite of the promulgation of consumer protection laws, electronic transaction law and cybercrime law, consumer protection measures for e-commerce in Oman do not address a large number of the global concerns necessary to build consumer confidence and trust in the online environment.
Research limitations/implications
There is a dearth of information concerning Oman on this topic in the extant literature. The research also witnessed the lack of empirical data on the issue of consumer protection and e-commerce in Oman that offer a detailed database of consumer complaints and associated outcomes.
Practical implications
The mechanism of consumer protection in electronic transactions is not robust in many countries. Because of the lack of comprehensive and robust legislation, consumers remain vulnerable in the online contractual purchase process. Moving beyond the fragmented legislation, many countries are currently mulling an all-comprehensive e-commerce law, implications of this paper will help the policymakers in identifying the focus areas.
Social implications
Consumer protection is a burning global issue in this era of consumerism. It is important to build consumer trust, transparency and integrity of transactions to reduce the risk and uncertainties of purchase.
Originality/value
Consumer protection studies conducted in the context of Oman, hitherto, deal more with data protection and dispute resolution mechanisms, and less with legal provisions, regulations and consumer confidence. The study shares newer insights based on a systematic review of legal and business databases. It is the first study of its kind in the context of Oman and the Middle East in general.
We analyze whether a benevolent regulator can improve welfare by imposing upper limits on fees that sellers can charge for returned products. When customers have neoclassical standard preferences, upper limits increase social welfare as return fees charged by suppliers are excessively high. By contrast, if an endowment effect causes customers to incur a perceived loss when returning a product, fees may be either too high or too low. We show that fees are more likely to be too low if (i) the endowment effect is large, (ii) the frequency of post-purchase dissatisfaction is high and (iii) the degree of dissatisfaction is small. We then show that if consumers rationally anticipate their endowment effect at the point of purchase, then socially optimal fees are the same as with standard preferences. Conversely, if consumers fail to anticipate their endowment effect, socially optimal fees are higher so that upper limits on fees are less likely to increase welfare. imposing lower return fees may then also backfire, as suppliers will respond by charging higher prices. Additionally, we find that the socially optimal return fee with an endowment effect is the same as with standard preferences if and only if customers rationally anticipate their behavior at the point of purchase. Adding behavioral preferences to the picture thus feeds skepticism toward legal interventions.
The development of Internet and e-commerce has tremendously changed the habits and behaviors of consumers. This fast and efficient medium of transaction has been able to overcome many obstacles inherent to offline transactions and as a result, e-commerce and e-transactions have become more popular among consumers who are struggling with hectic lifestyles. However, it is evident that online consumers are exposed to many inevitable challenges on the Internet, more than the offline consumers specifically with regard to violation of their consumer rights. Every consumer is entitled to several rights whether he/she is dealing online or offline, including the right to information, right to redress, right to privacy, etc.
False or misleading advertisements have, in the recent past been on the rise as a result of businesses seeking to compete for customers. Accuracy should entail full disclosure of all information because this is crucial in the marketing field where consumers expect to make informed decisions. In this study, it has been found that while misleading advertisements tend to provide overtly more positive information than is necessary, such positivity tend to result in negative experience for customers. Studies are expanding in the roles of false and misleading information that form the content of advertisements. This study has explored the importance of enhancing marketing activities through truthful facts to ensure that the functions of the organisation are believable and thus helpful to customers to make the right decisions. The study emphasises the importance of buyer being aware about a product or services through careful search during the buyer decision process.
International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2018 Vol.16 No.4, pp.453 - 465
El engaño al consumidor y usuario es uno de los supuestos de ilicitud de mayor recorrido en el ámbito de la regulación de las comunicaciones comerciales. La normativa española contempla el engaño desde diferentes perspectivas: por la forma del mensaje y por su contenido; por acción u omisión; por el destinatario del mismo; por aspectos intrínsecos de dichos mensajes o, por su comparación con las ofertas con sus competidores. El presente artículo plantea una reflexión sobre las diferentes maneras de entender el engaño publicitario, analizando la legislación básica y teniendo en cuenta también algunos aspectos clave de la jurisprudencia. Dicha reflexión pone de relieve que, sin menoscabo de los casos de engaño por el contenido material del mensaje publicitario, la defensa de los consumidores en materia de comunicaciones comerciales habría de orientarse cada vez más hacia aquellos formatos que, por su integración dentro de otros contenidos no publicitarios, o por su apariencia no comercial, no se identifican como tales. Formatos que por esa falta de identificación, escamotean al destinatario un conocimiento básico al que tiene derecho: saber si tras una determinada mención o mostración de producto o marca, tras un determinado evento del que se da cuenta, o tras una determinada propuesta narrativa, se esconde o no un interés comercial.
Evidence discussed in this article indicates that consumers rely heavily upon consumer reviews when making decisions about which products and services to purchase online. Sellers and their marketeers are aware of this, and as a result, some of them succumb to the temptation to generate fake consumer reviews. This article argues that policymakers and regulators need to take fake reviews seriously. This is because they undermine a (potentially) effective and efficient mechanism for overcoming information asymmetry between online sellers and buyers. Consumer reviews also offer a powerful mechanism for regulating the marketplace. Sellers who sell sub-standard products or engage in sub-standard selling practices risk reputational damage. Genuine consumer reviews can therefore moderate bad seller behaviour and assist in improving the quality and efficiency of the marketplace. Although there are laws in many jurisdictions that prohibit misleading and deceptive conduct, detecting fake reviews is complex and difficult. This article proposes that one way of increasing the effectiveness of regulatory oversight is for regulators to add an “alliance approach” to their existing arsenal of regulatory systems and mechanisms.
Really Responsive Regulation seeks to add to current theories of enforcement by stressing the case for regulators to be responsive not only to the attitude of the regulated firm but also to the operating and cognitive frameworks of firms; the institutional environment and performance of the regulatory regime; the different logics of regulatory tools and strategies; and to changes in each of these elements. The approach pervades all the different tasks of enforcement activity: detecting undesirable or non-compliant behaviour; developing tools and strategies for responding to that behaviour; enforcing those tools and strategies; assessing their success or failure; and modifying them accordingly. The value of the approach is shown by outlining its potential application to UK environmental and fisheries controls. Putting the system into effect is itself challenging but failing to regulate really responsively can constitute an expensive process of shooting in the dark.