The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has fined Vision IAS ₹11 lakh for publishing misleading advertisements about its UPSC Civil Services Exam students' success. This is the first case of a penalty for a repeat offence under consumer protection laws. The CCPA found that Vision IAS, officially AjayVision Education Pvt Ltd, hid which courses top candidates had actually taken. This gave the false impression that all toppers had enrolled in their costly foundation courses running into lakhs of rupees. "This is the first case of penalty on the second offence," said CCPA Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare. "Despite regulatory intervention and caution, the institute continued to make similar claims, showing a lack of due diligence." The ads claimed "7 in Top 10 & 79 in Top 100 selections in CSE 2023" and "39 in Top 50 selections in CSE 2022," showing names, photos, and ranks of successful candidates. But an investigation revealed only three of the 119-plus candidates actually took foundation courses. The rest used only services like test series, one-time tests, or mock interviews. While the institute noted Shubham Kumar (AIR 1, UPSC CSE 2020) enrolled in the foundation batch, it hid such details for others, misleading people to think all candidates took the premium course. The CCPA said this repeated violation deserved a higher penalty to protect consumers. It stated that hiding key details misled students and parents into believing Vision IAS was behind all their success—deemed a misleading advertisement under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. The Authority also stressed that unlike print, websites stay live globally and serve as major research platforms for students. False claims without student consent worsened the deception. "In highly competitive exams like UPSC, where lakhs invest heavily in time and money, such partial disclosure creates false hopes about results and coaching effectiveness," the CCPA said. So far, CCPA has sent 57 notices to coaching institutes for unfair practices. It has fined 28 institutes a total of ₹1.09 crore and ordered them to stop misleading ads. The Authority urged all coaching institutes to provide truthful, clear ads to help students make informed choices.