The ‘ Consumer Movement ’, as a 

social force, began in India with

the necessity of guarding and promoting the interests of consumers
against unethical and illegal trade practices. Rampant food dearths,
hoarding and the suchlike gave birth to the Consumer Movement in
an systematized form in the time, 1960. The movement succeeds
in bringing pressure on the Government. A major step was taken in
1986. The Parliament of India passed the Consumer Protection Act
( CPA) 1986 with the end to cover the interest of consumers in India.
This act establishes consumer councils and other authorities to help
settle disputes between consumers and businesses. This Act provided
protection to the consumers to a great extent but there was a wide
scope of amendments in the Act.

The new Consumer Protection Act, 2019 was introduced to replace the
1986 Consumer Protection Act, which was designed to protect
consumers from unfair business practices. The new Act includes various
provisions to protect consumers from modern technology-dependent
challenges, and to promote their rights.

 The new Consumer Protection Act, 2019 came into effect on July
20, 2020, empowering consumers to protect their rights through
its various provisions.

 The new Consumer Protection Act, 2016 is designed to be more

efficient than the 1986 Consumer Protection Act, which gave
consumers access to a single point of recourse through the
National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission whereas the
old act had three tiers of consumer dispute redressal machinery:
National, State, and District.
 Applicability:

This Act is applicable to all the products and services, until or

unless any product or service is especially debarred out of the
scope of this Act by the Central Government.

 Section 2(7) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 defines a

consumer as any person who buys goods or services in exchange
for consideration and utilises such goods and services for personal
use and for the purpose of resale or commercial use.

 Key Points:
 Central Consumer Protection Authority:
 The proposed Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)
under the Act would be a regulatory authority with the mission of
protecting, promoting and enforcing the rights of consumers and
regulating cases related to unfair trade practices, misleading
advertisements and violations of consumer rights.
 The CCPA would have a wide range of powers, including
- the ability 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 would also have an investigation wing to conduct
independent inquiry or investigation into consumer law violations.

 Rules on E-commerce and Unfair Trade Practices: The

government notified the Consumer Protection (E-commerce)
Rules, 2020 under the Act whose broad provisions are given
below:
 E-commerce entities must provide information to consumers
about their return, refund, exchange, warranty and guarantee,
delivery and shipment, modes of payment, grievance redressal
mechanism, payment methods, security of payment methods,
charge-back options and country of origin.
 These platforms must respond to consumer complaints within 48
hours and resolve them within one month from the date of
receipt. They will also appoint a grievance officer to resolve
consumer complaints.
 The Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020
are mandatory and are not advisories.
 Sellers cannot refuse to take back goods or withdraw services if
they are defective, deficient, or delivered late. They are also
obligated to refund buyers if the goods or services do not meet
the description on the platform.
 The rules prohibit e-commerce companies from unfairly gaining
an advantage by artificially raising the price of their goods or
services.
 The Act introduces a broad definition of Unfair Trade Practices,
which also includes the sharing of personal information given by
the consumer in confidence unless such disclosure is made in
accordance with the provisions of any other law.

 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.

 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.

 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.
 This allows consumers to file complaints electronically and with
the consumer commissions that have jurisdiction over their
residence.
 If a question about the admissibility of a complaint is not resolved
within 21 days, video conferencing can be used to hear the
complaint.

 Other Rules and Regulations:

 As per the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
Rules, there will be no fee for filing cases up to Rs. 5 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.
 The Central Consumer Protection Council:
- The Consumer Protection Act empowers the Central Government
to establish a Central Consumer Protection Council. It will act as an
advisory body on consumer issues.
- As per the notified Central Consumer Protection Council Rules,
the Central Consumer Protection Council would be 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.
- The Council, which has a three-year tenure, will have a Minister-
in-charge of consumer affairs from two States from each region –
North, South, East, West, and NER. There is also a provision for having
working groups from amongst the members for specific tasks.

 Consumer Rights
The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 is designed to protect the rights
of consumers. The act was created to ensure that these rights are
entrusted to consumers in a comprehensive way. The six consumer
rights defined under the Section 2(9) of the Consumer Protection
Act, 2019 are:

(i) the right to be protected

(ii) the right to be informed

(iii) the right to be assured,

(iv) the right to be heard

(v) the right to seek redressal

(vi) the right to consumer awareness.

 Some of the landmark judgments under the Act:

a. Supriyo Ranjan Mahapatra v. Amazon Development Centre India

(P) ltd. :-

The consumer ordered a laptop from an online retailer for Rs129,

but the purchase was cancelled after the company noticed that
the price was incorrect. The consumer was told about the issue
over a telephone call.

After trying to get in touch with the company to find out why their
order had been cancelled, the consumer finally went to the
district consumer redressal forum. There, it was found that the
company was both negligent in fulfilling their obligations and
engaged in unfair trade practices, so the forum partially allowed
the consumer's case and awarded them a total of Rs12,000.

b. Tata Press Ltd v. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. :

The Supreme Court observed that the right of the consumer to

receive commercial speech is important, and that ads that provide
important information about life-saving drugs may be more
important to the general public than ads that are only concerned
with profits. Additionally, the Court clarified that misleading and
deceptive advertising would not be protected by Article 19 of the
Constitution. 

c. Ernakulam Medical Centre v. P.R. Jayasree & Anr.:

The National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission believes that

releasing a dead body by a hospital to an unrelated third person is a
deficiency in service, as defined in Section 2(1)(g) and (o) of the
Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
 

d. HDFC Bank Limited v. Balwinder Singh:

The National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission was surprised

to see that the bank was using physical force to try and get money
from a consumer, and in the process, the musclemen took the car
the consumer was driving. The bank was held liable and the
consumer was awarded damages of Rs25,000.