Consumer Protection Act, 2019

August 28, 2020
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Consumer Protection Act, 2019

The New Consumer Protection Act, 2019 came into force on 20th July 2020 establishes the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) whose primary objective will be to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers.

It is 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/publishers of misleading advertisements.

Product Liability:

A manufacturer or product service provider or product seller will be held responsible to compensate for injury or damage caused by defective product or deficiency in services

Basis for product liability action:

Manufacturing defect.
Design defect.
Deviation from manufacturing specifications.
Not conforming to express warranty.
Failing to contain adequate instructions for correct use.
Service provided-faulty, imperfect or deficient.

Alternate Dispute Resolution Mechanism of Mediation:

A complaint will be referred by a Consumer Commission for mediation, wherever scope for early settlement exists and parties agree for it.
The mediation will be held in the Mediation Cells which will be established under the aegis of the Consumer Commissions.
There will be no appeal against settlement through mediation.

Simplification of the Consumer Dispute Adjudication Process:

Empowering the State and District Commissions to review their own orders.
Enabling a consumer to file complaints electronically and in consumer commissions that have jurisdiction over the place of his residence.
Video-conferencing for hearing and deemed admissibility of complaints if the question of admissibility is not decided within the specified period of 21 days.

Other Rules and Regulations:

As per the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission Rules, there will be no fee for filing cases up to R5 lakh.
The credit of the amount due to unidentifiable consumers will go to the Consumer Welfare Fund (CWF).
State Commissions will furnish information to the Central Government on a quarterly basis on vacancies, disposal, the pendency of cases and other matters.
Apart from these general rules, there are Central Consumer Protection Council Rules, provided for the constitution of the Central Consumer Protection Council (CCPC).
It will be an advisory body on consumer issues, headed by the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution with the Minister of State as Vice Chairperson and 34 other members from different fields.

Punishment for Manufacture or Sale of Adulterated/Spurious Goods:

In case of the first conviction, a competent court may suspend any licence issued to the person for a period of up to two years and in case of second or subsequent conviction, may cancel the licence permanently.

The act provides 6 rights to the consumers:
1. To have information about the quantity, quality, purity, potency, price, and standard of goods or services.
2. To be protected from hazardous goods and services.
3. To be protected from unfair or restrictive trade practices.
4. To have a variety of goods or services at competitive prices

File a complaint from anywhere
The new law enables consumers to file complaints electronically and file complaints in consumer commissions that have jurisdiction over the place of his residence instead of the earlier practice of filing case at the place of purchase or where the seller has its registered office.

No fee for filing cases up to 5 lakh:
As per the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commision Rules, there will be no fee for filing cases up to R5 lakh.

Appear for the hearing via video conferencing: Plantiffs can attend the hearing of the case through video conferencing, according to the new law.

Seek compensation under product liability:
This new law includes the product manufacturer, product service provider and product seller, for any claim for compensation.