A Study on the Consumer Exploitation: With Special Reference to

Gangtok, Sikkim

Binit Pradhan

Department of management

15 April,2024

Abstract

Consumers refer to those people who consume goods and services and exploitation means an

unfair act. The purpose of this paper is to make consumers aware of various exploitation that

are available in Gangtok. These are the following steps of my research 1) Establish the

problems namely a) how are consumers being exploited b) what are the ways that are used to

exploit c) analyze whether the consumers are aware of their rights d) identify what can stop

consumer exploitation. 2)Identifying research methods such as a) study uses quantitative data

for the collection of information b) A questionnaire in the form of primary data was used as a

source to collect accurate and relevant data c) Questions were open-ended 3) Findings from

the data that contribute the main objective of my study where this research study has given

various suggestions and lastly the conclusion where it seemed that the consumers were

absent-minded while buying products and not aware of exploitation practices.

Keywords: Consumer Exploitation, consumer, Gangtok

1 Introduction

Consumption is a habitual occurrence of human beings. Human beings need to buy goods and

services from traders and suppliers, relationship between them provides a significant

importance in the human society. “consumer is a person who buys goods and services”

(Oxford Learners Dictionaries).

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 Consumers must be protected from the sellers if there is unethical, unfair, and illegal

practices conducted as they are weak in bargaining position due to a lack of knowledge and

resources (Paramasivan, 2016). Consumer Exploitation has been stated by (Kumari, 2023)

“Consumer Exploitation refers to a situation where businesses or individuals take advantage

of consumers in unfair or unethical ways, often to gain financial advantage.” Another

researcher (Preksha, 2023)states consumer exploitation as “The act of exploiting customers is

known as consumer exploitation”, the researcher states that exploitation takes place due to a

lack of product information and illiterate consumers. Consumer exploitation is common in

rural areas as consumers are less aware of their rights. The only remedy available is to file a

complaint in consumer forums for compensation or in most cases consumers are not aware of

the Consumer Protection Act. Gangtok too is not an exception to it, where various instances

like food adulteration, duplicity of products, and overcharging are very common.

2 Review of Literature

This section provides a brief overview of research in the area of consumer behavior where

consumer exploitation takes place.

(Murooka & Schwarz, 2019) in their study, they viewed a model where a firm offers a

contract to a consumer and how a consumer cancels the contract due to their reasons. Firms

set a long notice period to cancel the contract and between those notice period, the study

shows how consumers are exploited by firms charging cancellation fees and firms taking a

long time for a refund. His research also gives an example where Germany has introduced a

policy where the notice period cannot exceed three months.

(Stonedale, 2014) has conducted a study on some of the characteristics that facilitate

consumer exploitation. His research talks about multidimensional pricing and multiple

transactions with one contract, which are referred as “MPMCs”. This is used by sellers to

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advertise the product at a low price without lowering the total price. Multidimensional pricing

and Multiple Transactions here are referred as more likely to lead to exploitation because it

requires additional work to evaluate whether the product is worth the price, leading to

opportunities for errors as consumers are price conscience.

Research conducted by (S & Jain, 2013) talks about how civil cases of consumer exploitation

are moving to criminal cases. He has conducted various case studies where it was portrayed

that consumer exploitation has become more dangerous than it used to be before. In one of

his case studies of Jacob Mathew Vs the State of Punjab (2005), due to negligence of medical

professionals how it led to the death of a person. Therefore, the study suggests that consumer

exploitation should be treated as an offense and converted into “Consumer Crimes”.

(Myrstad & Tjostheim, 2021)has conducted research that demonstrates how large companies

which is unknown to consumers, have their personal data about their interests, habits, and

behavior. When we create a profile about ourselves on any website application other

companies can track and manipulate or discriminate us. In the research, ten apps were

observed transmitting user's data to other third parties.

(Kayla, 2015)Laid out in her research that women were used to advertise objects. Marketers

use women to attract customers but women were struggling to keep up with the idealistic

beauty in the media around them, as they were portrayed what they were not in real. Like

putting up beauty products, clear skin, and perfect hair to achieve perfection. Editors too

edited their pictures to make them perfect by digitally manipulating them. The researcher has

given an example of the Dove-exploiting beauty of women by showcasing how the use of

Dove would lead to the model showcased.

The research conducted by (Turow , Feldman, & Meltzer, 2005) showcases how due to lack

of knowledge of both offline and online marketers consumers are charged different prices and

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most adults do not know what to do if their personal information is used illegally. The

research talks about how various policies like Privacy Policy, teaching consumer education,

and how Governments should play an important role in protecting personal information.

(Tatlow, Mimi, & Amandine, 2020) In their research they have talked about Unhealthy food

marketing which has a negative health effect on children. The research came up with the

conclusion that food marketing is directly related to food obesity and noncommunicable

diseases as advertisement promotes unhealthy food, increasing purchases and leading to

overconsumption of unhealthy food. Overall the researchers hope that the children's foods are

protected and free from exploitation.

(MacFarlane, Hurlstone, & Ecker, 2020) They studied about Fraudulent Health claims, to

promote remedies(Like weight loss, and homeopathy) that were not tested and were harmful.

The objective of their research was to provide a framework to consumers by raising

awareness, showcasing negative impacts, and providing correct information to stop the

exploitation. The study also helps consumers how to overcome barriers to exploitation and

how one can select the best medicine for use.

(Barushka, Munk, & Hajek, 2020)Conducted a study on fake consumer reviews where

various approaches were taken to find fake reviews. As fake reviews would lead to attracting

consumers to buy the product leading to exploitation thus two NN models were developed to

find out fake reviews.

An article published by (Photis & Paschalia , 2019) suggests that dairy product waste has

antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties that are health-conscious.

(especially cheese-making waste). Therefore the studies highlight the importance of carrying

out healthy dairy nutrition qualities that the consumers will accept.

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 After going through the review of literature it is found that consumers are exploited in

various forms while buying goods and services by using different strategies that are unknown

to consumers. Through reviewing various existing literature this research has come up some

findings which were very interesting from the above literature review, First, how companies

use women model to portray their products to attract customers to buy it (Kayla, 2015) ,

Second, where the customers personal data was shared to other companies and a model was

developed to find out the fraudulent companies (Myrstad & Tjostheim, 2021)and lastly where

exploitation to consumers have taken a darken sight by making it as criminal cases (S & Jain,

2013). All these findings were quite interesting as it showed how consumer exploitation has

been increasing and new modes of exploitation were caught. As such in the above present

study. Thus, this research has evaluated how consumers are being exploited in the day-to-day

world.

3 Research Methodology:

This research will be descriptive as it intends to highlight how consumers are being exploited

in Gangtok and it contains specification of population, research design, sampling design, and

data collection.

3.1 Population and Sample

This research on consumer exploitation was conducted in Gangtok through a Questionnaire,

where out of the 1,40,000 population the questionnaire was distributed in Google form to

more than 300 people but only received from 35 respondents at random as it is difficult to

collect samples from the entire Gangtok population.

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3.2 Research Design

This research paper contains various articles from Research Papers and other online portals

that were used to complete this research. The main objective of doing this research is to

educate the consumer as consumers are exploited through advertisement, through defective

items, and through duplicate products. Suppliers or sellers use to various strategies like

unethical trade practices, and deceptive advertising that exploit consumers. The main

objective of my research is to educate consumers and make them aware of various techniques

that are used to exploit them. This study was possible with the help of a questionnaire that

was used to gather reliable data minimizing bias and reducing my effort and time.

3.3 Sampling design

To collect the sample, it has gone with Non-probabilistic sampling and it is based on

convenience as it was quick and inexpensive to collect the sample. This research has a set of

17 questions in my questionnaire and the respondents had to answer from the list of options.

The questions were based on consumer buying habits (whether they check MRP and expiry

date) and on their knowledge of whether they know their rights as consumers or not.

3.4 Data collection

This study uses quantitative data for the collection of information, to collect the data, this

research has gone with the primary source of data collection. This research surveyed in the

form of a Questionnaire, various questions were asked whether they have been exploited and

collected various data through structured questions. This research has taken a closed-ended

questionnaire to gather data as it is easy to complete, very quick, and not burdensome, as

respondents have to answer from the list of options.

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4 Data Analysis and Interpretation

From the above pie chart, it can be found that out of 34 respondents, 52.9% are male and

47.1% are female.

From the pie chart we can see that most of the respondents were of age 18-25 were 77.1%

and 22-35 were 20% and the remaining aged 35-50 were 2.9% as there was only one

respondent belonging on that age group.

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The above pie chart depicts that most respondents i.e. 85.7% check the MRP before buying a

product and the remaining 14.3% respondents depends upon the product before buying a

product, MRP being an important factor in buying goods and sercives consumers sometimes

neglect or they depend upon products.

The result shows that 85.7%respodents check the expiry date, 11.4 respodents depends upon

the product before examing the expiry date and 2.9% respodents donot check the expiry

date.This shows that some resopodents are careless before purchasing a product as expiry

items could lead to helath hazard in consumers.

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Out of the 35 respodents we can analyze that only 14.3% are bothered to check the weight of

the product and equally 42.9% each, the respondents doesnot check the product or they

depend on the product. Many unfair practices are there where the actual metioned weight is

not there and most respondents donot check the weight.

As major of my respondents were young adults aged 18-25, this age group people are health

conscious according to that from the above pie chart we can see that 51.4% of respondents

check the nutritional level of food items and the remaining 48.6% do not check the nutritional

level before buying a product.

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From the above pie chart we can see that more than 50% respondents check the weighing

scale machine and the remaining 40% do not check the weighing scale machine.

Food adulteration refers to unwanted components that harm a person's health, from the above

chart we can conclude that 64.7% of respondents have never come across food adulteration

and the remaining 35.3% i.e. 12 respondents have come across food adulteration.

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In the above pie chart, we can see that only 24 respondents have complained, the remaining

11 respondents did not complain to anyone or they haven’t come across adulteration on food

items, from this we can conclude that consumers even if they come across adulteration they

don’t know the rights of a consumer and do not complain to anyone The respondents who had

come across food adulteration has mostly filed the complaint to the shopkeeper i.e 70.8%

filed a complaint to the shopkeeper and 8.3% have filed a complaint to the main supplier and

the 20.8% have filed a complaint to other people.

The above pie chart shows how many respondents are aware of the Consumer Protection Act,

According to a journal (The Consumer Protection Act, 1986), it was an act to protect the

interest of the consumers by prohibiting unfair trade practices, discrimination of consumers,

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and honesty of sales. Of the 35 respondents, 74.3% of respondents know about the Consumer

Protection Act and the remaining 25.7% do not know about the act.

The above pie chart depicts how many are aware of consumer courts for any problems that

consumers are facing, thus 62.9% of my respondents are aware of consumer courts and the

remaining 37.1% are not aware of consumer courts.

This pie chart showcases how many respondents have filed a complaint in the consumer

court, thus 97% of respondents haven’t filed a complaint and only 3 percent have filed a

complaint.

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The above pie chart indicates that 88.6% of respondents have come across duplicate products

and the remaining 11.4% have not come across duplicate years.

Although various schemes were launched by the Government like the Gago Grahak Jago, The

respondents were asked whether the government can play an important role in stopping food

adulteration or duplicate products, majority of respondents think that government can not

fully stop and only 40% of the respondents think that government can play an important role

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in stopping food adulteration or duplicate products.

This pie chart illustrates what the respondents think can stop exploitation in the market,

According to the respondents 66.7% of respondents feel that making consumers aware can

stop exploitation in the market and 25.7% think government policy can stop exploitation.

Lastly, 8.6% feel that through review exploitation can be stopped.

Advertisement is the most popular way to exploit a consumer, and we have seen this in the

research conducted (Kayla, 2015) on how advertising attracts consumers, thus from the above

pie chart we can see that the majority of 85.7% of respondents do not believe in

advertisement claims and only 14.3% of respondents believe in an advertisement.

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From the all above it can be conveyed that most of the respondent's ages lie between 18-25

and they are well aware of the Consumer Act and their rights as a consumer. From the above

data it is clearly shown that some respondents neglect to check the expiry date of the product

as it may lead to adulteration of food items. The most interesting out of the above was where

more than 90% of the respondents have across duplicate products. It may either be due to

fake companies claiming the quality of the real brand, and respondents too don’t believe in

things that advertisement claims. Thus, the majority of the respondents feel that if consumer

is made aware of consumer exploitation it would lead to fewer consumers being exploited in

the market.

4.1 Profile of the Respondents

The profile of the respondents in terms of Gender, Age, their buying habits, and knowledge

about consumer policy were gathered and analyzed to have accurate data of the respondents.

Thus, the following table represents the data of the respondents.

Table 4.1Profile of the Respondents

Male 17
Gender
Female 16

18-25 26

Age 25-35 7

35-50 1

Yes 30
Do you check the MRP
No 0
before buying a product?
Depends upon Products 5

Do you examine the expiry Yes 30

date of products before No 1

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buying it? Depends upon Products 4

Do you check the weight of Yes 5

the products before buying No 15

it? Depends upon Products 15

Do you read the nutritional Yes 17

level on food items? No 18

Do you believe everything Yes 16

that you read on the label? No 19

Do you check the weighing

Yes 21
scale machine before the

shopkeeper scales the

No 14
items?

Yes 12
Have you ever come across

Food Adulteration? No 23

Shopkeeper 17
If, yes who did you
Main-supplier 3
complain it to?
others 5

Are you aware of the Yes 26

Consumer Protection Act? No 9

Are you aware of

Yes 22
consumer courts for the

redressal of grievances of No 13

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 consumers?

If yes, have you ever filed Yes 1

a case in the consumer
No 32
court?

Have you ever come with Yes 31

duplicate items in the
No 4
market?

Do you think government

Yes 14
can fully stop

adulteration or duplication
No 21
of product?

Review 3

What do you think can stop Consumer Awareness 23

exploitation in the market?

Government Policies 9

Do you believe in Yes 5

everything the
No 30
advertisement claims?

Source: Authors Calculations

5 Findings and Suggestions

The primary objective of this research was to find out whether the consumers are aware of

exploitation that sellers use to deceive them and to know whether the consumers are aware of

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their rights as a consumer. The findings in this study is through proper analysis of the

respondents data and numerous questions were asked whether they know their rights as a

consumer or not.

Through reviewing all the respondent’s data this research found that following:

 Most respondents are young adults and they know about the rights as a consumer.

This may be due to awareness that is spread among this generation.

 Some consumer are absent minded while checking the MRP and the expiry date.

 From the information of the respondents an interesting thing that this research found

that was majority of the respondents are least bothered to check the weight of the

product, an important factor where consumer might not know that they have been

exploited until they check the actual weight.

 This research found out that one respondent whose age lied between 35-50 had filed a

case in the consumer court and was well aware of his rights. Meaning that age is not a

factor that sellers think that it is easy to exploit old aged people.

 Going through the respondents data, this study found that consumers are not well

aware of the Consumer Protection Act that is there to protect them in case if they are

exploited.

 Today’s market is filled with duplicate products, claiming quality of renowned

companies. Going through the study, many of the respondents have come across

duplicate products and this research had asked what can be done to stop duplicity of

products.

 Respondents do not feel that the government can play an important role in stopping

the duplicity of products. According to the study, the majority of the feedback

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 suggests that making consumers aware of duplicate products can stop exploitation. If

people are aware of the duplicate products, they simply won’t buy them.

 Lastly today's generation of consumers are wise it seems as majority do not believe

what the advertisement claims. These were all the points that this study found from

the respondents data. However, there are some suggestions that this research would

like to conclude.

There is little discussion about duplicate products that exploit consumers

and negligence among consumers. Although discussion of related work has been done. There

is no so much research on the negligence of consumers leading to consumer exploitation, and

no such research has been done in the filed where consumers are being exploited in terms of

weight as consumers tend to feel that whatever the packet claims it tends to be true, thus this

research paper would stand different from other researchers. So a proper awareness program

should be launched to make consumers aware of the exploitation and consumers should be

taught what to do incase they have been exploited or their personal information has been

misused. Thus, according to that this research paper was conducted based on whether the

consumers are aware of the exploitation and whether they check various information before

buying a product and whether they know what to do incase they have been exploited.

6 Conclusion

Consumers are key to businesses without them business cannot be carried. Making customers

happy is an important role of every organization. India is home to the largest population of

287 million illiterate adults (Oxfam, 2015) , As a result most of the consumers are not aware

of them being exploited and their rights. Every consumer should be aware of the different

fraudulent methods that companies and suppliers/sellers use to exploit consumers. The

consumers should not be negligent to check the MRP and expiry date at the time of purchase.

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The consumers should have the knowledge about what to do if they are exploited both offline

and online, the steps or procedure to be followed, the consumer court that is there to help the

consumers.

Although Consumer Protection Act has been there to protect the

consumers interest but most people are not aware of it. Even the government has taken

initiative to make consumers aware like Jago Grahak Jago program which was launched in

2005 by government of India. So, to make the whole consumers of the world, aware of the

consumer exploitation we must all make voluntary effort and make an active participation to

promote awareness. If people are aware of the exploitation then there will be less exploitation

in the market.

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