CONSUMER RIGHTS

1. The Consumer in the Marketplace

• As producers of goods and services, we could be working in Agriculture, industry or services.
• Consumers participate in the market when they purchase goods and services that they need.
• These are final goods that people as consumers use.
• To protect people from high interest rates charged by money lenders in the informal sector
• Many people who work in the unorganized sector have to work at a low wage and accept conditions that are not fair and also often harmful to health.
• To prevent such exploitation rules and regulations are required for the protection of the consumers in the marketplace.
• Individual consumers often find themselves in a weak position.
• Whenever there is a complaint regarding a good or service that had been bought.
• The seller tries to shift all the responsibility onto the buyer.
• Exploitation in the marketplace happens in various ways.
• For example, sometimes traders indulge in unfair trade practices such as when shopkeepers weigh less than what they should when traders add charges that were not mentioned before or when adulterated or defective goods are sold.
• Markets do not work fairly when producers are few and powerful whereas consumers purchase in small amounts and are scattered.
• This happens especially when large companies are producing goods.
• These companies with huge wealth, power and reach can manipulate the market in various ways.
• False information is passed through media and other sources to attract consumers.

2. Consumer movement

• The consumer movement arose out of dissatisfaction with the consumers as many unfair practices were being indulged in by the sellers.
• There was no legal system available to consumers to protect them from exploitation in the marketplace.
• In India, the consumer movement as a social force originated with the necessity of protecting and promoting the interest of consumers against unethical and unfair trade practices.
• Rampant food shortages, hoarding, black marketing, adulteration of food and edible oil gave birth to the consumer movement in an organized form in the 1960s.
• Consumer organisations were largely engaged in writing articles and holding exhibitions.
• They look into the malpractices in ration shops and overcrowding in the road passenger transport.
• Indian parliament enacted the Consumer Protection Act on 24^th December 1986.
• Thus we observe 24th December as the national consumer’s day.
• It was amended in the year 2019 to further strengthen consumers in India. Buying through the internet is included.
• If there is any service deficiency or defective product, the service provider or manufacturer is also held responsible and would be penalized or even imprisoned.
• Settlement of disputes with the help of a neutral intermediary outside the consumer disputes redressal commission called a mediator.

3. Consumers International

• In 1985 United Nations adopted the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection.
• This was a tool for nations to adopt measures to protect consumers and for consumer advocacy groups to press their governments to do so.
• At the international level, this has become the foundation for consumer movement.
• Today it has 200 member organisations from over 100 countries.

4. Consumer rights

• Consumers have the right to be informed about the particulars of goods and services that they purchase.
• Consumers can complain and ask for compensation or replacement if the product proves to be defective.
• Details of ingredients used, price, batch number, date of manufacture, expiry date and the address of the manufacturer.
• For medicines the directions for the proper use and information related to the side effects and risks associated with usage of that medicine.
• One can protest and complain if someone sells a good at more than the maximum retail price.
• Consumers can bargain with the seller to sell less than the MRP.

5. Right to Information Act (RTI) 2005

It ensures its citizens all the information about the functions of government departments.

Consumers have the right to seek redressal against trade practices and exploitation.  

• If any damage is done to a consumer, she has the right to get compensation depending on the degree of damage.
• The consumer can file a complaint before the appropriate consumer forum on his or her own with or without the services of lawyers.
• Consumers as an individual or group (called class action suit) file a complaint both physically or through the Internet and conduct the case through video conferencing.
• The consumer movement in India has led to the formation of various organisations known as consumer forums or consumer protection councils for guiding consumers on how to file cases.
• These voluntary organisations also receive financial support from the government for creating awareness among people.
• Under COPRA, three-tier quasi-judicial machinery at district, state and national levels was set up for the redressal of consumer disputes.
• The district-level authority called the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission deals with cases involving claims up to 1 crore rupees.
• The state-level consumer disputes redressal commissions are called state commissions between one to ten crore rupees.
• The national-level commission deals with cases involving claims exceeding 10 crore rupees.
• If the case is dismissed in the district-level commission, a consumer can also appeal in the state and then in national-level commissions.
• The Act has enabled consumers to have the right to represent in the consumer disputes redressal commissions.