The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has made a fresh attempt at settling a regulatory investigation into the misuse of Trading Access Point (TAP) software at the bourse. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) rejected a similar application in 2022. "NSE and its employees have filed a consolidated settlement application dated May 4, 2023, with Sebi.
In its order passed on Wednesday, the commission said Rs 1.08 lakh in fees deposited by complainant Priyanka Dixit at the time of admission in 2021 must be returned along with 12 per cent annual interest, while Rs 5,000 must be given to her as litigation cost and Rs 50,000 as compensation for financial and mental agony.
The government on Friday made it mandatory for social media influencers to disclose their "material" interest in endorsing products and services and violations can attract strict legal action, including ban on endorsements. The regulations are part of continuing efforts to curb misleading advertisements as well protect the interests of consumers amid the expanding social influencer market which is projected to be worth around Rs 2,800 crore by 2025. The new guidelines named 'Endorsement Know Hows -- for celebrities, influencers and virtual media influencers (Avatar or computer generated character) on social media platforms' has been issued by the Department of Consumers Affairs.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Thursday directed e-commerce entities to sell specified ayurveda, siddha and unani drugs only after customers upload valid medical prescriptions from registered doctors on the platforms.
The top court said a considerable amount of direct control is exercised by the client over the manner in which an advocate renders his services during the course of his employment.
The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has set aside capital markets regulator Sebi's order that imposed a penalty of Rs 5.25 crore on Cairn India for making a misleading announcement regarding buyback of shares in 2014. Cairn India, which was merged with Vedanta Ltd in 2017, was accused of making a misleading public announcement designed to influence investors' decisions. "We hold that the violations of provisions of... the Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices (PFUTP) Regulations and... the Buyback Regulations are not proved against the company (Vedanta)," a bench consisting of Justice Tarun Agarwala and presiding officer Meera Swarup said.
Amid rising consumer complaints, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Monday barred hotels and restaurants from levying service charge automatically or by default in food bills and allowed customers to file complaints in case of violation. The CCPA has issued guidelines for preventing unfair trade practices and violation of consumer rights with regard to levying of service charge. "No hotels or restaurants shall add service charge automatically or by default in the bill," CCPA chief commissioner said in the guideline.
'The ministry may like to consider setting up an ombudsman similar to electricity ombudsman and insurance ombudsman, to ensure a time-bound resolution of consumer issues within the airline sector.'
The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Thursday quashed the markets regulator Sebi's order imposing a fine of Rs 7 crore on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in the dark-fibre case. Additionally, the tribunal has set aside a fine of Rs 5 crore levied by Sebi on the exchange's former official Anand Subramanian. Further, it has partly set aside the regulator's order against former MD and CEO of NSE Chitra Ramkrishna, ex-official Ravi Varanasi and a few stock brokers, among others.
A National Commission order held that the buyer was the borrower and so the bank was entitled to demand the EMI payments from him.
The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Monday set aside the penalty imposed by Sebi on Reliance Industries Ltd's chairman Mukesh Ambani and two other entities in a case related to alleged manipulative trading in the shares of erstwhile Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) back in November 2007. The ruling has come after all the entities appealed before the tribunal against the order passed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in January 2021. In January 2021, Sebi imposed a Rs 25 crore fine on Reliance Industries Ltd(RIL), Rs 15 crore on Ambani, who is the company's chairman and managing director, Rs 20 crore on Navi Mumbai SEZ Pvt Ltd and Rs 10 crore on Mumbai SEZ Ltd in RPL case.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday imposed a penalty of Rs 26 crore on Coffee Day Enterprises (CDEL) for alleged violation of securities laws. The regulator also directed the company to initiate steps to recover dues of Rs 3,535 crore-the amount diverted from seven subsidiaries of CDEL to Mysore Amalgamated Coffee Estates (MACEL). Affirming the violations of the Sebi (Prevention of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices) Regulations and Sebi (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, whole-time member Ashwani Bhatia said the listed company was being run like a personal fiefdom with no checks and balances in place.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed new regulations to deal with suspicious trading activities-a move that will empower the market watchdog to go after entities making unusual profits without any fundamental basis. The regulator has issued a discussion paper, inviting feedback on the draft of the Sebi (Prohibition of Unexplained Suspicious Trading Activities in the Securities Market) Regulations, 2023, which are aimed at curbing front-running, use of mule accounts, pump and dump schemes, and misuse of social media influencers. Currently, Sebi's Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices (PFUTP) and Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) Regulations deal with such activities.
For the time being, digital lending remains a grey area, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Sebi on Wednesday ordered the attachment of bank and demat accounts of Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy and three others to recover Rs 6.48 crore for violating regulatory norms by two group companies. The recovery proceedings have been initiated against these four persons for violating regulatory norms in the issuance of optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs) by two group companies. Apart from Sahara, others whose bank and demat accounts were attached are Ashok Roy Choudhary, Ravi Shanker Dubey and Vandana Bharrgava.
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries on Tuesday said its arm DUSA Pharmaceuticals Inc has reached settlement with Biofrontera to resolve a litigation over misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair practice, following which DUSA will receive $22.5 million (nearly Rs 170 crore). In 2018, DUSA Pharmaceuticals had filed a suit at the US District Court of Massachusetts against Biofrontera Inc Biofrontera Bioscience GmbH, Biofrontera Pharma GmbH, and Biofrontera AG (together known as Biofrontera) alleging "misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference of contract and unfair trade practices".
The government on Friday came out with new guidelines to prevent misleading advertisements, including those targeting children and making free claims to woo consumers.
Sebi widens fraudulent, unfair trade practices list
Sebi on Monday decided to declare illegal mobilisation of funds as a "fraudulent and unfair trade practice".
Sebi on Tuesday sent a notice to 7 entities, including Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh, asking them to pay Rs 48.15 crore within 15 days in a fund diversion case of Religare Finvest. Sebi also warned of attachment of assets and bank accounts, if they fail to make the payment. The notice came after the entities failed to pay the fine imposed on them by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
'The aim is also to probe how the ministry and testing agencies made negligence in examining these OEMs, so that such negligence is avoided in the future.'
The government has asked Chinese mobile companies to increase their exports from India and there is no proposal to ban the sale of handsets below Rs 12,000 made by such firms, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Monday. The Minister of State for Electronics and IT also said that Indian companies also have a role to play in the country's electronic ecosystem but it does not mean exclusion of foreign brands. "Only issue that we have raised and done very transparently with some of the Chinese brands is that we have said that our expectation is that they will do more exports.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has issued notices to five e-commerce entities, including Amazon, Flipkart and PaytmMall, as well as various sellers for offering pressure cookers that are non-compliant with BIS norms. The notices were issued on November 18 to Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Shopclues and PaytmMall, and the sellers. As part of celebrations of 75 years of Independence - 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav', CCPA has initiated a country-wide campaign to prevent sale of spurious and counterfeit goods that violate Quality Control Orders published by the Centre, the government said in a statement on Monday.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the market regulator, has said, in a submission to the Supreme Court, that it is "enquiring" into the allegations made by American short-seller Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group of companies and its impact on the markets. In the same matter, the central government has agreed to form an expert committee to strengthen the regulatory regime in order to ensure that market investors are protected. The Supreme Court had last week suggested an expert committee to look into the allegations and had asked the Centre for its response.
Sebi had, in February, dropped allegations of fraudulent and unfair trade practices against NSE's former heads Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramakrishna in the co-lo case.
We are looking at bringing quality control orders for mass production items such as smart meters and ceiling fans. This will benefit our own industry and consumers, a government official said.
Greenwashing is making misleading or false environment-friendly claims about a product. Consumers in India currently do not have any way of telling whether a claim is authentic or greenwashing. And one never hears of action against any company for making false claims of being environment-friendly.
Sebi on Thursday barred 45 entities, including actor Arshad Warsi, his wife Maria Goretti and others, from the securities market in cases related to manipulating the share prices of two companies through uploading misleading videos on YouTube channels. The cases pertains to uploading misleading videos on YouTube channels and recommending investors to buy the shares of Sadhna Broadcast Ltd and Sharpline Broadcast Ltd. Apart from the couple, some of the promoters of Sadhna Broadcast have been restrained from the securities market for their involvement.
"There are complaints and reports in social media and media about overcharging by some five-star hotels for items like bananas and eggs. This is a serious and unfortunate matter," Paswan told reporters in New Delhi.
The government has not set up any committee to probe allegations a US short seller labelled against the Adani Group, but stock market regulator SEBI is investigating market allegations against the group, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday. A separate investigation into imports of Indonesian coal by the conglomerate hasn't reached finality, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said. Lok Sabha saw several questions being put by MPs to the government on the Adani issue, which were replied through written responses by the minister.
Pelosi said that she is in Taiwan to listen and learn from Taiwanese people as to how can they come together.
The apex consumer court on Monday issued notice to Nestle India Limited on a Rs 640-crore or Rs 6.40 billion suit against it by the Centre.
Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is examining allegations of front-running and other irregularities against a host of domestic fund managers across the asset management industry, said people in the know. Developments at Axis Mutual Fund have prompted the regulator to speed up probe to ensure that there is no drop in confidence in the Rs 39-trillion mutual fund (MF) industry. "We have received complaints against a few fund managers and are looking into possible violations, including those related to code of conduct," said a regulatory source, refusing to divulge names of fund houses as things are at a preliminary stage.
Sebi on Monday barred total 85 entities, including Sunrise Asian Ltd, from the capital markets for up to one year for manipulating the company's share price. In its order, the regulator restrained Sunrise Asian and its then five directors from the capital markets for one year and the 79 connected entities for six months. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had conducted an investigation in the scrip of Sunrise Asian for the period from October 16, 2012 to September 30, 2015, based on a reference received from the Principal Director of Income Tax (Investigation), Kolkata.
How dominant are Chinese firms in India's sub-Rs 10,000 mobile device market? The question has become relevant as the government has been thinking of reserving this price segment for domestic players who have not been able to battle the Chinese onslaught. However, telecom firms and others are concerned that such a move could stymie the effort to build affordable 5G phones in the sub-Rs 10,000 category.
The stock was the worst hit among the blue-chips on both BSE and NSE.
A customer dissatisfied with his dining experience can have service charge on his food bill waived.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Wednesday said it has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on e-commerce firm Flipkart for allowing sale of substandard domestic pressure cookers on its platform, in violation of mandatory standards. Headed by Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare, the CCPA has directed Flipkart to recall all such 598 pressure cookers sold on its platform, reimburse their buyers, and submit a compliance report within 45 days. The central government routinely notifies the Quality Control Orders (QCOs), specifying compulsory conformity to a standard and use of the standard mark for a product to protect consumers from the risk of suffering injury and harm and in the interest of the public at large.
Sebi on Monday barred Franklin Templeton AMC from launching any new debt scheme for two years and fined it Rs 5 crore for violating regulatory norms in the case of winding up of six debt schemes in 2020. Also, it has been asked to refund investment management and advisory fees to the tune of Rs 512 crore, including interest, collected with respect to the six debt schemes, Sebi said in its 100-page order. In a separate order, the regulator has barred Vivek Kudva, former head of Asia Pacific (APAC) for Franklin Templeton, and his wife Roopa from the securities market for one year for redeeming units of Franklin Templeton MF schemes while in possession of non-public information.
Uber on Thursday said it is now showing trip destination to drivers before they decide to accept a ride to enable them to make informed choices as the ride-hailing app announced a host of new measures promising to improve platform experience for drivers as well as riders. Upfront destination feature is already live across 20 cities and will be expanded to all others, Uber said in a statement. The move assumes significance as the government recently warned cab aggregators, including Ola and Uber, of strict action unless they improve their systems and redress mounting consumer complaints.