Daily Times

The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) on Friday recommended to issue a show cause notice to online education provider M/s. British Lyceum Private Limited, which was engaged in deceptive marketing practices and acting prima facie violation of Section 10 of the Competition Act, 2010.

A press release issued here Friday said that in this regard CCP conducted an inquiry, which found M/s. British Lyceum Private Limited acting prima facie in violation of Section 10 of the Competition Act, 2010 and recommended issuing a show cause notice to it.

M/s. British Lyceum is an online educational institute, which is an associated company of American Lyceum Private Limited and Royal Lyceum Private Limited and have dozens of branches across Pakistan. The CCP took notice of certain claims that British Lyceum was advertising in newspapers and posting on their website, suspecting the claims to be in violation of Section 10. The three major claims that called the attention of Commission included, “teachers can earn Rs80,000 to Rs250,000 per month; education program worthy of Rs3.75 billion is endorsed by Cambridge Global; and that there are eminent educationists and technologists on our Board of Directors.”

Taking notice on its own under Section 37(1), CCP conducted an Inquiry to see whether these claims violated Section 10 and regarding the first claim, the inquiry stated that British Lyceum in its newspaper advertisement announced a special package under which teachers could earn Rs80,000 to 250,000 per month, with a disclaimer published on the bottom left corner of the advertisement stating: “terms and condition apply, for details, visit website.” The inquiry found that the disclaimer was not quite clear and noticeable to readers. The terms and conditions were not available on the website to provide full disclosure of ‘material information that may be required to the potential consumer for taking a well-informed decision. Whereas the respondent also failed to substantiate the claim through evidence that the teachers can earn Rs80,000 to 250,000 per month.

Regarding the second claim, the inquiry found that Cambridge Global was a dormant company in the UK, thus the sole purpose of claiming “collaboration with Cambridge Global” by British Lyceum appeared to be for adding credibility to the program based on falsehood. The inquiry termed the claim not only to be false but misleading as well. Moreover, the project size of Rs. 3.75 billion was also calculated in a misleading manner and it was not supported by evidence. The inquiry also found the third claim of having eminent educationists and technologists on their Board of Directors to be false and misleading as it was not substantiated by the facts.