‘Customer is the king’ now has more meaning in India. Beginning on Monday, several sections of the new Consumer Protection Act 2019 will come in to force, protecting the consumers against negligent manufacturers, distributors and sellers.
With the consumers’ peace of mind in focus, the new law will ensure that complaints can be filed at a district or state consumer commission from the location where the complainant resides rather than from where the service or product was bought. The consumer can get an increased amount as compensation from errant sellers and punishment has also been made stringent.
Consumer Protection Act, 2019 was signed into law by President Ram Nath Kovind in August last year. It seeks to make corporations accountable for the quality of goods being sold or manufactured by them. Until now, the more than three decade old Consumer Protection Act (1986) has been in force.
The compensation amount is higher to the point that the consumer even can receive up to Rs. 1 lakh in case they are sold an adulterated or spurious product. The seller may also be sentenced to up to six months of jail.
If the consumer is directly or indirectly harmed by the product sold, the consumer can even receive up to Rs 5 lakh as compensation, and the jail term for the seller could extend up to seven years. If the consumer dies, the compensation could range up to Rs. 10 lakh and the seller could be sentenced to a life imprisonment term.
However, consumer protection authority for advertisements, e-commerce rules of websites and making celebrity endorsers liable is yet to be notified. If the particular session of the act gets notified, celebrity endorsers can be fined up to Rs 10 lakh while repeat offenders could be penalised up to Rs 50 lakh. Hence celebrities have to be more cautious before endorsing any brand.
Highlights of the new act:
· The District Forum has been renamed the District Commission
· It can now hear cases with a value upto Rs 1 crore
· The State Commission can now hear cases upto Rs 10 crore
· The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Communication (NCDRC) can hear cases with value higher than Rs 10 crore.
·Consent terms entered between the parties before a professional mediator will be treated as an order of the court.
· A consumer can file a case wherever he resides.
· The state communication and the NCDRC can declare null and void the allegedly unfair terms of contract.
