NCDRC dismisses Cloudtail's appeal against CCPA order over pressure cooker sales

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd. challenging the order passed by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) with regard to violation of the rights of consumers by the company for sale of domestic pressure cookers to consumers in violation of mandatory BIS standards.

The order passed by CCPA was challenged by Cloudtail in its appeal before the NCDRC, and the appeal was dismissed by the NCDRC on Wednesday.

In its order, CCPA had directed Cloudtail India to recall the 1,033 units of domestic pressure cookers sold by it to consumers and reimburse the prices of the recalled pressure cookers to consumers and submit a compliance report within 45 days. The company was also directed to pay penalty of Rs 1,00,000 for sale of pressure cookers in violation to QCO and violating the rights of consumers.

Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd. is the seller of pressure cooker namely “Amazon Basics Stainless Steel Outer Lid Pressure Cooker, 4 L (does not give pressure alert by whistle)”. The pressure cooker was being offered for sale to consumers on Amazon e-commerce platform at the URL — https://www.amazon.in/AmazonBasics-Stainless-Steel-Pressure-Cooker/dp/B0....

As per the QCO which came into force on February 2021, domestic pressure cookers are mandated to conform to Indian Standard (IS) 2347: 2017 and bear the standard mark under a license from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as per Scheme-I of Schedule II of Bureau of Indian Standard (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018.

The order state that domestic pressure cookers are among the most commonly used everyday items in households, and are present in the immediate vicinity of family members. Therefore, it opined that a domestic pressure cooker, which violates the mandatory requirements of the QCO, can prove to be extremely fatal and dangerous for the life and safety of consumers and public at large.

In the present case, Cloudtail was observed to be selling domestic pressure cookers to consumers without conforming to the prescribed mandatory standards and without the standard (ISI) mark under the license from the BIS. The non-certified pressure cooker was being sold by Cloudtail to consumers in India even after the QCO came into force.

Cloudtail had submitted in its reply to CCPA that after the QCO came into force, it had suspended the import of the pressure cookers. It was observed by CCPA that though import was suspended, the company had not stopped the sale of such pressure cookers to consumers. In fact, the submission indicated that despite being aware of the QCO, the company was still selling such pressure cookers to consumers at large.