Consumer Protection

Chapter - 05 Consumer Protection C o n t e n t - • Introduction • Consumer Movement • The Consum er Protection Act • Consum er Dispute Redressal Agencies • The Sale of Goods Act • The Essential Commodities Act • The Drugs and Cosmetics Act • The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act • The Design Act • Intellectual Property Rights • Certification M arks in India Introduction - This chapter covers the constitutional provisions available for counterfeiting and piracy. Chapter also provides history of consumer movement in India and its progress. Further it discusses various Acts available for protecting consumer’s rights against counterfeiting and piracy. This chapter also mentions Intellectual Property Rights with special reference to Patent, Copyright and Trademark. At the end it discusses about some of the Statutory and Non-statutory certification marks available in India. “Consumer” is an important part of economic activities; he has the power to influence demand and supply in economy. The act of consumption is the most fundamental need of living being which always inspired humans to try innovative things in life. Consumption is the process that starts with life and ends with life. Consumer thus becomes an important factor in market. A person w h o spends m o n e y alw ays expects value for m o n e y in return i.e. right quality, right quantity, right price etc... Former U S President ‘J. F. Kennedy’ is the one who is responsible for making world aware about revolutionary concept of “Rights of Consumers” it includes four basic consumer rights as - Right to Safety, Right to Information, Right to choice and Right to a fair hearing by government. 15*'’ March 1983 was the day when first “World Consumer Rights Day” was observed. In India 24"’ December is considered as the National consumer rights day. Consumerism popularly known as “Consumer movement” started in India since 1966. In India, consumer movement has its roots in the growth of trade and commerce for many centuries, even though there are few isolated incidents of consumer redressals since historic times. ‘Kautilya’s Arthashastra’ mentions the strong punishments for exploitation by trade and industry. ‘Mauryan’ rulers were known to have awarded punishments for adulteration of food and even ‘Mughals’ were known to have enforced price control mechanism strictly. 199 5.1 Consumer Movement - Consumer movement was influenced and received new directions based on the works of a few key personalities in different parts of the world. To mention key pioneers in this area - ‘Ralph Nader’’ of U S A has been a moving force behind the growth and sustenance of the consumer movement in U S A , and thereby a guiding force for the rest of the world. ‘Michael Young’ of U K is a well known authority in the area of consumer movement as the first director of consumer association, and first chairperson of National Consumer Council, he demonstrated dynamism towards making consumerism a social movement and a concern for ordinary consumers. ‘Anwar Fazal’ of Malaysia and ‘Toyohiko Kagawa’ of Japan, the father of the Japanese consumer cooperation movement are the few other prominent figures in the development of consumer movement. Consumer Movement in India - In India, tide o f co nsum er m o v e m e n t w o u ld not have started, until the efforts o f ‘Father of Nation’, “M . K. Gandhi”. His belief was that, “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. H e is not dependent on us. W e are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider to our business. H e is part of it. W e are not doing a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.^” During independence struggle, non-cooperation movement boycotted foreign goods symbolizes the organization of consumer movement in India. The consumer movement in India was started in 1966 with the setting up of Consumer Guidance Society of India was formed in Mumbai with the objective to protect consumers against rising prices of essential commodities. In the same year council for Fair Business Practices was formed by leading industrialists like J.R.D. Tata and Ramkrishna Bajaj. The Indian Consumers Union was established in 1971. The ' Bollier, D. (1991). Citizen Action and Other Big Ideas: A History of Ralph Nader and the Modem Consumer Movement Washington, D.C. Retrieved on 2012, December 27 from http://www.nader.org/history. ^ Retrieved on 2012, May 13 from http://www.mkgandhi.org/faq/q7.htm 200 activities o f this union include offering legal advice, testing facilities, arranging lectures and seminars. ‘The Consumer Education and Research Centre’ was formed in 1978 at Ahmadabad to guide and protect consumer rights. Consumers Cooperative Societies like, Grahak Panchayat and Government Employees Consumer Stores etc... make their purchases directly from producers and sell them at reasonable prices to members. The Sahakari Bazars in urban areas have made a great contribution in protecting consumer interest. The growth of consumer movement in India is very slow due to several reasons such as the illiteracy o f Indian consum er, general attitude of the public, lack of active support from political parties and other members of the society. In m odem India, many laws were enacted to protect the consumers against various types of malpractices such as inferior quality products or services, false information, fraud selling etc... However consumers’ awareness about enactments is relatively less and access to related information is poor. Low literacy rate, ignorance of the consumers, low income etc... are the factors that works against the development of consumer awareness, which resulted in the lack of coordination among different agencies. Indian consumers as compared to western consumers have certain reservations regarding the com plaint m e ch an ism , due to different factors o f social-cultural environment. Majority people of India, being deeply religious minded have developed an attitude o f self-satisfaction over the centuries, w h ic h gets reflected in their purchase behavior and post purchase behavior as well. Unlike the western consumers, who are quite aggressive by nature, Indian consumers are passive in nature regarding consumer movement. Their learning and behavior modification regarding the consumer laws and consumer protection have yet to develop to western levels. Compared to the well developed western consumer movement, the Indian consumer movem ent is still in its early stage. In modem economy, the government has minimum interference in economic activities. The producers and suppliers decide the quantity, quality, distribution and price of the goods and services produced, especially the consumer goods. As a result, some profit seeking entrepreneurs may adopt such policies and practices that are 201 against the interests of the consumers. The producers may produce or offer adulterated, fake or low quality products as sell it at the highest possible price or discriminating price. They may provide the consumer with misleading advertisement or wrong information about the company, deceptive packaging, exaggeration of claims and false quantity of products. The Indian government also gave importance of protection of consumer rights from unethical suppliers and several laws were made to serve the purpose. Some of them are the Indian Contract Act, The sale of Goods Act, The Dangerous Drugs Act, The Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marketing) Act, The Indian Standards Institution (Certification Marks) Act, the prevention of Food Adulteration Act, The Standards of Weights and Measures Act, etc... Although these acts serve the purpose of protecting consum er interests u p to so m e extent, they require the consum er to initiate action by way of a civil suit involving lengthy legal process which is very expensive and time consuming as well. 202 5.2 Consumer Protection Act, 1986 ^ - A n A c t to provide better protection for the interests o f co nsum ers and for that purpose to make provision for the establishment of consumer councils and other authorities for the settlement of consumers’ disputes and for matters connected therewith. Applicability of Act: This Act amended in 2002 applies to all goods and services unless specifically exempted by the Central Government. It is applicable to all private, public or cooperative sectors. This Act extends to the whole of India, except the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Who is a CONSUM ER? “Consumer” means any person who- i) Buys any goods for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any user of such goods other than the person who buys such goods for consideration paid or promised, or under any system of deferred payment when such use is made with the approval of such persons, but dose not include a person who obtains such goods for resale or for any commercial purpose. ii) Hires or avails of any services for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment and includes any beneficiary of such services other than the person who ‘hires or avails’ of the services for considerations paid or promised, or partly paid and partly promised, or under any system of deferred payment, when such services are availed of with the approval of the first mentioned person but does not include a person who avails of such services for any commercial purposes. ^ National Consumer Dispute Redressa! Commission (NCDRC), Retrieved on 2012, August 25 from http://ncdrc.nic.in/l_l .html 203 “Consumer dispute” (According to Sec. 2 (e)) means a dispute where the person against w ho m a complaint has been made, denies or disputes the allegations contained in the complaint.

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