Why consumer rights are important? All about India's Consumer Protection Act

The Consumer Protection Act, passed in 2019, comes under the aegis of the Department of Consumer Affairs of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution for its implementation.

It is a mechanism that is designed to help consumers protect their interests against unfair business practices and other issues due to breaches in their rights.

Under the act, there is a regulatory authority called the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) where consumers can take their disputes with sellers of goods.

The CCPA is supposed to be an enforcer of consumer rights and also regulate the trade disputes among consumers and sellers.

Investigation power 

The consumer protection body also has the power to take suo-moto actions, recall products, order reimbursement of the price of goods/services, cancel licenses, impose penalties and file class-action suits.

The CCPA also has an investigation wing that can conduct independent inquiries or investigations into consumer law violations.

If the CCPA finds that a violation of consumer rights has taken place then it can order the recalling of goods or withdrawal of services that are dangerous, hazardous or unsafe. it can also order the company that has breached consumer rights to reimburse the prices of goods or services.

Apart from CCPA, the act has provided for the establishment of Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (CDRCs) at the national, state and district levels to entertain consumer complaints.

Along with CCPA, the district and state commissions with their jurisdictions being a district and a state respectively, have been given the power to investigate cases and impose penalty/fine if any.

If any party is not satisfied by the order of CCPA then they can go to the National Commission within a period of thirty days from the date of receipt of such order to file an appeal.

In this act, one of the major provisions is that consumers have the right to information on various segments of goods and services.  

The information about the quantity, quality, purity, potency, price, and standard of goods or services etc have to be provided to the consumer without any hesitation.

Promote safe, secure business practices

To ensure safe and secure business practices along with consumer protection, the act fixes liability of the brand on the endorsers. This was initiated in this act, owing to numerous cases of malpractices and misleading advertisements for products.

Simply put, the act forces the endorsers - usually the influencers or other well known celebrities to take the onus and exercise due diligence to verify the veracity of the claims made in the advertisement to refute liability claims.

Lastly, this Act is applicable to all the products and services, unless and until any product or service is specially put out of its scope and jurisdiction by the government of India.