Professor M.M. Goel*
(Samajweekly) In economics, as consumer, everyone is a hero of the market of goods and services and expect the quality, guarantee, warranty, standards and brand name without being vocal for local as desired by the prime minister of India in his address to the nation on May 12, 2020. It is the duty of the traders (marketers, advertisers and sellers online or offline), distributors and producers to understand the needs of the consumer and make their products affordable and the price of the product should be worth of the product. To create demand of the goods and services in post covid era, there is a strong case for adopting NAW (Need, Affordability and Worth) approach of marketing.
The Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 2019 comes in to effect from July20, 2020 is relevant to protect the rights of the consumers with implications for the Indian economy in post covid era. The Act (NO. 35 OF 2019) developed in eight chapters consisting of 40 pages document was notified by the ministry of law and justice on August 09, 2019 applicable to the entire India except the state Jammu & Kashmir which no more exists. This act was inevitable to resolve a large number of pending consumer complaints in consumer courts across India. It has ways and means to solve the consumer grievances speedily.
The CPA 2019 replacing the old Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is most important legislation given birth to ‘consumer activism’ as a process by which activists seek to influence the way in which goods or services are produced and delivered in India . It provides simple, speedy and inexpensive justice to the consumer who stands defined as any person who buys any goods and 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 user with the approval of the buyer. The consumer under CPA does not include a person who obtains such goods and services for resale and commercial purposes.
As per the act; a person is called a consumer who avails the services and buys any good for self-use. Worth to mention that if a person buys any good and avail any service for resale or commercial purpose, is not considered a consumer. This definition covers all types of transactions i.e. online and offline.
To promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers, the salient features of CPA 2019 are:
1. Establishment of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA):
The act has the provision of the Establishment of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) which will protect, promote and enforce the rights of consumers. It will regulate cases related to unfair trade practices, misleading advertisements, and violation of consumer rights. The CCPA will have the right to impose a penalty on the violators and passing orders to recall goods or withdraw services, discontinuation of the unfair trade practices and reimbursement of the price paid by the consumers. It will have an investigation wing to enquire and investigate such violations headed by the Director-General.
2. Rights of consumers:
The CPA provides 6 rights to the consumers including to have information about the quantity, quality, purity, potency, price, and standard of goods or services, to be protected from hazardous goods and services, to be protected from unfair or restrictive trade practices and to have a variety of goods or services at competitive prices
3. Prohibition and penalty for a misleading advertisement:
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) will have the power to impose fines on the endorser or manufacturer up to 2-year imprisonment for misleading or false advertisement (Like Laxmi Dhan Warsha Yantra). It is worth mentioning that repeated offense may attract a fine of Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment of up to 5 years.
4. Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission:
The CPA has the provision of the establishment of the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (CDRCs) at the national, state and district levels. The CDRCs will entertain complaints related to Overcharging or deceptive charging, unfair or restrictive trade practices ,sale of hazardous goods and services which may be hazardous to life and Sale of defective goods or services.
5 Jurisdiction under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019
The act has defined the criteria of Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (CDRCs). The National CDRC will hear complaints worth more than Rs. 10 crores. The State CDRC will hear complaints when the value is more than Rs 1 crore but less than Rs 10 crore. While the District CDRC will entertain complaints when the value of goods or service is up to Rs 1 crore. CPA, 2019 as new Act will empower consumers and help them in protecting their rights through its various notified rules and provisions like Consumer Protection Councils, Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions, Mediation, Product Liability and punishment for manufacture or sale of products containing adulterant / spurious goods.
CCPA will be empowered to conduct investigations into violations of consumer rights and institute complaints / prosecution, order recall of unsafe goods and services, order discontinuance of unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements, impose penalties on manufacturers/endorsers/
The rules for prevention of unfair trade practice by e-commerce platforms will also be covered under this Act. The gazette notification for establishment of the Central Consumer Protection Authority and rules for prevention of unfair trade practice in e-commerce are under publication.
Under CPA every e-commerce entity is required to provide information relating to return, refund, exchange, warranty and guarantee, delivery and shipment, modes of payment, grievance redressal mechanism, payment methods, security of payment methods, charge-back options, etc. including country of origin which are necessary for enabling the consumer to make an informed decision at the pre-purchase stage on its platform.
The e-commerce platforms have to acknowledge the receipt of any consumer complaint within forty-eight hours and redress the complaint within one month from the date of receipt under this Act. He further added that the New Act introduces the concept of product liability and brings within its scope, the product manufacturer, product service provider and product seller, for any claim for compensation.
The rules for prevention of unfair trade practice by e-commerce platforms under CPA 2019 are necessary but not sufficient. To make the rules sufficient, we need cooperation from the Indians as street smart (simple, moral, action oriented, responsive and transparent) consumers, producers, distributor and traders.
The simplification of the consumer dispute adjudication process with introduction of the concept of product liability and brings within its scope, the product manufacturer, product service provider and product seller, for any claim for compensation will ultimately prove to be consumer friendly and encourage consumer activism. This calls for awareness movement for the consumers to understand the CPA 2019.
The provisions of the CPA have been subjected to intensive and comprehensive analysis in the light of the cases decided by the Supreme Court, National Commission and the State Commissions deserve to be understood, analysed and interpreted by the stakeholders.
The women consumers who many times become victims of the special promotional sales during festivals have to be updated with the CPA 2019. There is a strong case for studying the implications of CPA on other performance indicators of the Indian economy including inflation by the researchers. The consumers can no longer become victim by the marketers, sellers and advertisers with effective implementation of CPA 2019. Let India become consumer friendly with consumer activism through knowledge of the CPA relevant for all times to come in post covid era.
* Former Vice Chancellor and Needonomist Professor retired from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. Enjoy surfing the website www.needonomics.com
