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Representation submitted to DoCA, MIB, MeitY, MoF, SEBI, ASCI & Parliamentary Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs
New Delhi, February 26, 2025: The New Indian Consumer Initiative (NICI) and a coalition of leading consumer interest organizations have submitted a joint representation to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Advertising Standards Council of India, and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs, on prohibiting Opinion Trading platforms in India. According to the representation, these platforms offer pure play betting activities that mislead consumers through deceptive advertising, luring them to indulge in illegal and unauthorized activity, and exposing them to financial and psychological risks.
The signatories of the representation, which include Ramjibai Mavani, Former Member of Parliament, Founder of Rajkot Jilla Grahak Suraksha Mandal, and Prof. Dr. Duraisingam, Chairman, Consumer Research, Education, Action, Training & Empowerment (CREATE), highlight the consumer harm posed by these betting platforms especially due to misleading advertisements that show these Opinion Trading Platforms as an investment platform.
Abhishek Kumar, Convenor, NICI, “Through this joint representation, we urge the government to prohibit opinion trading in India and take decisive action, including issuing interim instructions to avoid consumer harm, banning digital and social media advertisements, prohibiting app stores, cloud service providers, and payment gateways from supporting these platforms. We also urge the Central Consumer Protection Authorities to investigate misleading claims and for law enforcement agencies to freeze assets linked to these platforms. “
Opinion trading platforms allow users to wager money on real-world event outcomes, mimicking financial markets but fundamentally functioning as gambling and betting platforms. With an estimated trading volume exceeding ₹50,000 crore annually and reaching over five crore Indian users, they misrepresent themselves as skill-based games or an investment platform. However, the binary nature of these wagers makes these platforms predominantly chance-based, raising concerns about their legality under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which prohibits unauthorized betting and gambling.
A major issue is the misleading advertising used by these platforms, often implying regulatory oversight and using financial terms like “Auto Profits” and “Stop Loss” to create an illusion of structured investments. Many advertisements, including influencer promotions, falsely portray earnings as risk-free, potentially violating ASCI and CCPA guidelines on misleading promotions.
Beyond financial losses, these platforms can negatively impact users’ well-being, leading to stress, compulsive behavior, and normalization of gambling culture—particularly among economically vulnerable groups. With several countries now enforcing strict regulations/prohibitions on opinion trading, the coalition requests ministries to act swiftly to safeguard consumer rights, particularly the right to be informed, heard, educated, and protected.
Signatories:
Mr. Abhishek Kumar, Convenor, NICI; Prof. (Dr.) Duraisingham, Chairman, CREATE; Ms. Poonam Sharma, President, Rashtriya Samuddeshya Vikas Sansthan; Mr. R D Usmani, Director, IITED; Mr. Rakesh Parmar, President, Samajik Vikas Sansthan, Dholpur; Mr. RamjiBhai B. Mavani, Ex-MP and President, Rajkot Saher Jilla Grahak Suraksha Mandal; Dr. R Ramesh, General Secretary, Tamil Nadu Consumer Protection and Environment Research Centre; Mr. Rijit Sengupta, CEO, Centre for Responsible Business; Dr. Shipra Mathur, Founder, PEN Media Literacy; Adv. (Mr.) Surendran PA, Advocacy Coordinator, Consumer Association, Palakkad.
About NICI:
The New Indian Consumer Initiative (NICI) is a community-owned platform that fosters interaction on the many challenges and opportunities of consumers in the New Economy. It is also a platform for community-led capacity building, for consumers to understand and lead the public interest. NICI curates discussions on topics of common interest to people across different sectors. It aims at elevating general awareness levels of citizens as consumers, seeking their views and eliciting their responses for informed policy design.
