New Age Challenges in Consumer Protection in India

This Blog is written by Miss. Nandini Tripathy, Student of Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad.

With fast-paced developments taking location inside the market, the size of client protection is rapidly changing. Complex products, revolutionary services, technological improvements, competitive selling practices symbolize the present-day advertising and marketing age. When the market panorama is so dynamic, the patron safety frameworks therein cannot have enough money to stay static. They ought to preserve evolving, adapting, and enhancing all the time. In addition, the globalization of the marketplace also poses challenges to its personal. Challenges relating to the safety of consumers in the market encompass making sure clients have to get entry to good enough information, are not subjected to unfair and deceptive practices, and making sure availability of recourse mechanisms in case of disputes. These demanding situations are extra pertinent with regards to economic offerings, e-commerce transactions, and for vulnerable companies. Financial services & E-commerce lack region-unique regulation to guard consumers while ‘Gray areas’ which are not sufficiently regulated continue to exist. With the advancement in technology and the growing complexity of services and products on one hand and lack of good enough law on the alternative, there are openings for unscrupulous factors to exploit the consumers. Consumer safety issues are shared globally and aren't unique to any united states of America or zone. International ideas, requirements, and inter-government cooperation in this regard can cross a protracted manner to serve consumers’ interests

The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (COPRA) in India gives a three-tier, quasi-judicial equipment, on the National, State and District degrees, for the safety of purchasers. The goal of the Act is to offer for better protection of the hobbies of consumers and to make provision for the status quo of patron councils and other government for the agreement of consumers' disputes. Presently, there are 629 District Forums and 35 State Commissions in an area with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) being on the apex to provide cheaper, fast, and precis redressal of client disputes. Under Section 6, the Act establishes Consumer Councils on the National, State, and District level, the object of that is to sell and guard the rights of the consumers. The targets listed under section 6, can be translated into the simple consumer proper as furnished in India which can be: (a) Right in opposition to promoting hazardous items (b) Right to be knowledgeable about the fine, amount, potency, purity, general and charge of products (c) Right to the preference of products at aggressive fees (d) Right to be heard (e) Right to are seeking for redressal towards unfair exchange practices (f) Right to customer training The Consumer Protection Act is presently under revision and the Consumer Protection Bill, 2015 is below attention within the Parliament. Along with several adjustments from the previous Act, the Bill proposes to bring in an independent customer authority known as the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) The crucial authorities will set up the CCPA to sell, protect, and put in force the rights of customers. The CCPA might be an independent authority with investigative powers to cope with be counted that challenge purchaser pursuit. (Consumer Protection Bill, 2015). Department of Consumer affairs, underneath the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is answerable for enforcement of the Consumer Protection Act in India.

Consumer Protection worries are not new and have been around for long. But the adjustments inside the market have discovered new problems in these age-old issues. The patron protection frameworks discussed above want to adapt and evolve to thoroughly deal with the following issues

Information Asymmetry

Information asymmetry in a market takes place when one birthday party to the transaction own more data on the goods/offerings. In a regular purchaser market, the producer or dealer own extra information compared to the consumer. When making purchase selections, customers would really like to recognize 3 pieces of facts (London Economics, 1997): the charge of the product, the excellent of the product, and the phrases of trade.

Redress Mechanism

Redressal Mechanisms provide recourse to customers who have had unsightly experience in the market. Consumer Protection Act, 1986 offers for the quasi-judicial device including the Consumer Fora, State Commissions and National Commission. Some unique demanding situations regarding redress mechanisms are

1. The Long, bulky, time-eating legal process
2. The Onus is on the consumer to do so
3. Lack of understanding about prison intricacies
4. Lack of Alternate Dispute Redressal Mechanisms

The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 enforces the rights of consumers and affords for redressal of lawsuits at the district, nation, and countrywide degree. Such court cases may be concerning defects in items or deficiency in services. The Act additionally recognizes offenses including unfair change practices, which encompass presenting false statistics concerning the quality or quantity of an excellent or carrier, and deceptive commercials. Over the years, there had been challenges within the implementation of the Act. An excessive wide variety of purchasers have been blind to their rights under the Act. While the disposal price of purchaser instances turned into excessive (approximately 90%), the time taken for his or her disposal becomes lengthy. It took 12 months on a median to resolve a purchaser case. Also, the Act does not cope with customer contracts between a customer and manufacturer that contain unfair phrases. In this context, the Law Commission of India had encouraged that a separate law is enacted and presented a draft Bill about unfair settlement phrases.

In 2011, a Bill to amend the 1986 Act become added to enable customers to report online complaints, and in opposition to unfair phrases in an agreement. However, the Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha. The Consumer Protection Bill, 2015 changed into introduced in Lok Sabha to update the 1986 Act. The Bill introduced diverse new provisions, which protected: (i) product legal responsibility; (ii) unfair contracts; and (iii) putting in place of a regulatory body. The Bill become tested by way of the Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs which submitted its report in April 2016. The Committee gave several pointers in regards to (i) product liability; (ii) powers and features of the regulatory frame (Central Consumer Protection Authority) being installation; (iii) penalties for deceptive advertisements and endorsers of such advertisements; and (iv) pecuniary jurisdiction of the adjudicatory frame at the district degree.  The Consumer Protection Bill, 2018 became introduced in January 2018 to update the 2015 Bill.

Key Features

1. Consumer Complaints
2. Product Liability
3. Unfair contracts
4. Unfair and restrictive exchange practices
5. Penalties

The Bill units up Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (client courts) at the district, state, and countrywide degree, as quasi-judicial our bodies for adjudication of customer disputes.  We speak a few problems regarding the composition of those Commissions and the technique of appointment of the participants. The District, State, and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions will adjudicate lawsuits on faulty items and poor services of various values. They were given the powers of a civil courtroom.  The State and National Commissions act as appellate bodies at the choices of the District and State Commissions, respectively. Appeals from the National Commission may be heard by means of the Supreme Court. Therefore, those Commissions are quasi-judicial our bodies with the National Commission being on par with High Courts.

The Bill specifies that the Commissions could be headed via a ‘President’ and will contain other participants. However, the Bill delegates to the vital authorities the strength of figuring out the qualifications of the President and members. In particular, the Bill does no longer specify that the President or members need to have minimal judicial qualifications. This is in evaluation with the present Consumer Protection Act, 1986, which states that the District Commission could be headed by using someone certified to be a district choice. Similarly, the State and National Commissions are headed by using someone certified to be a High Court or a Supreme Court judge, respectively.  The 1986 Act also specifies the minimal qualification of participants.  The in advance 2015 Bill too unique judicial members to head the State and National Commissions, even though it permitted the District Commission to be headed by using the district magistrate further to someone certified to be a district judge.

The new legislation has created a Central Consumer Protection Authority (Authority) to inter alia “adjust matters referring to violation of rights of purchasers, unfair exchange practices and false or deceptive commercials which can be prejudicial to the pursuits of public and consumers and to promote, guard and enforce the rights of customers as a class.” To put in force this provision, the Authority is empowered to inquire and look at, which it does via a committed investigative wing set-up headed through a Director-General, analogous to the Competition Commission. Additionally, the Authority can also report court cases and intervene in topics before the Consumer Commissions.

All-in-all the 2019 Act is an advantageous step towards reformation and development of patron laws, within the mild of dynamically converting socio-economic trends. One has visible many other similar steps having lately been taken, as an example, homebuyers being taken into consideration Financial Creditors under the Bankruptcy Code and the entering effect of RERA. But the real test for the 2019 Act is in its implementation and a few leeways need to receive for it to actualize the comfort for the customers. Due to the converting nature of services and products and technological advancements in the enterprise surroundings, new dangers to patron welfare have emerged. These necessitate updating of our existing client protection equipment. While the Consumer Protection Act is under a procedure of revision and some of the gaps diagnosed are being addressed, loads nevertheless need to be executed. As proposed in Consumer Protection Bill 2015, establishing a new specialized frame, Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) with investigative powers, enough understanding, good enough resources, and continuity is clearly the want of the hour. The Authority needs to own the following capabilities: transparency, responsibility, impartial and truthful composition, selection, and appointment. In addition to these proposed adjustments in Consumer Protection Bill 2015, the challenges discussed in the paper want to be checked out. The UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection can serve as a guiding principle in this regard. Consumer Protection framework but wishes to be designed for the specific wishes of Indian purchasers maintaining in thoughts the evolving nature of the market. Further, the pastimes of vulnerable agencies have to receive unique attention and safeguards. Considering the global nature of today’s financial system, patron problems have come to be a worldwide issue. Cross-boundary exchange and online transactions have resulted in a worldwide patron base of many businesses. Thus, International Cooperation in issues related to customer safety has grown in its significance. In order to ensure that pursuits of Indian customers are blanketed within the hastily changing commercial enterprise landscape, effective intervention by coverage makers is required. It is time we bring our legal guidelines and their implementation in line with the advancements in the market. Such well-timed motion might make sure purchasers keep their trust and self-assurance in the marketplace and are nicely protected from market screw-ups.