Consumer Rights Day-the past and the present
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning “– Bill Gates
When and What?
Consumer Rights Day is observed on 15th March every year.
The definition of Consumer right is:
‘The right to have information about the quality, potency, quantity, purity, price and standard of goods or services’, as it may be the case, but the consumer is to be protected against any unfair practices of trade.”
Awareness about these rights is very essential for the consumers to prevent exploitation of any kind.
World Consumer Rights Day is an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity within the international consumer movement. Participants observe the day by promoting the basic rights of all consumers, demanding that those rights are respected and protected, and protesting about the market abuses and social injustices which undermine them.
Origin
The origin of the day dates back to 15th march, 1962 when former US President John F. Kennedy said:
“Consumers by definition include us all. They are the largest economic group, affecting and affected by almost every public and private economic decision. Yet they are the only important group… whose views are often not heard.”
In 1983 consumer rights activist Anwar Fazal working for Consumers International at the time, later proposed the observance of a 'World Consumer Rights Day' to mark that date. Henceforth 15 March, 1983 is observed by all consumer organisations as an occasion to promote basic rights of consumers.
Consumers International
Consumers International is the membership organisation (a not for profit company limited by guarantee) for consumer groups around the world. At present it boasts of over 250 member organisations in 120 countries.
The organisation was initially established by Elizabeth Schade and Caspar Brook in 1960 as the International Organisation of Consumers Unions (IOCU) involving national consumer organisations who wanted to share knowledge and create campaigns across national boundaries. The First International Conference Consumer Testing took place in The Hague, Netherlands.
Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, the working of this organization is broadly divided into six major geographical segments across the world. While London houses the Global Office India is the centre of activities for the South East region. The other regions are Latin America and the Caribbean (Chile), Africa (South Africa),Asia Pacific (Malaysia) and Middle East (Oman).
Consumers International works closely with the International Organisation for Standardization to create Standards that provide solutions to global challenges. It holds General Consultative Status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, which is the highest status granted by the United Nations to non-governmental organizations thereby allowing them to participate in UN proceedings.
Themes
The consumer rights day is connected with a specific theme that is usually connected to the most significant issues facing the consumers at that particular period.
The theme in the previous years have been as shown in the table below:
Year Theme
2013 Consumer Justice Now
2014 Fix Our Phone Rights!
2015 Helping consumers choose healthy diets
2016 Antibiotics off the menu
2017 Building a Digital World Consumers can Trust
2018 Making Digital Marketplaces Fairer
2019 Trusted smart products
The theme for 2020 is The Sustainable Consumer.
Consumer Rights in India
Protection of consumer rights in India is mainly monitored under the Consumer protection Act, 2019 which replaced the original act passed in 1986.
Rights of the consumers:
- To have information about the quantity, quality, purity, potency, price, and standard of goods or services.
- To be protected from hazardous goods and services.
- To be protected from unfair or restrictive trade practices.
- To have a variety of goods or services at competitive prices
- To seek redressal and Right to be heard.
Central Consumer Protection Authority
The act envisages the establishment of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to protect, promote and enforce the rights of consumers. The CCPA will regulate cases related to unfair trade practices, misleading advertisements, and violation of consumer rights. It can impose a penalty on the violators and pass orders to recall goods or withdraw services, discontinuation of the unfair trade practices and reimbursement of the price paid by the consumers.
CCPA will also have an investigation wing to investigate such violations and the power to impose fines on the endorser or manufacturer up to 2-year imprisonment for misleading or false advertisement. Repeated offense, may attract a fine of Rs 50 lakhs and imprisonment of up to 5 years.
Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission:
The act has the provision of the establishment of the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (CDRCs) at the national, state and district levels.It will entertain complaints related to;
- Overcharging or deceptive charging
- Unfair or restrictive trade practices
- Sale of hazardous goods and services which may be hazardous to life.
- Sale of defective goods or services
The National CDRC will hear complaints worth more than Rs. 10 crores. The State CDRC will hear complaints when the value is more than Rs 1 crore but less than Rs 10 crore. While the District CDRC will entertain complaints when the value of goods or service is up to Rs 1 crore.
Other Acts
In addition to the Consumer Protection Act various other laws like the Weights and Measures Act, 1976 and the acts to protect environment indirectly guards against the long term and short term exploitation of the consumers along with several other functions.
Even then...
However despite various sincere efforts at the international and national levels majority of consumers are in one way or the other held at the mercy of the smaller but much better organised producer groups. The main reason for the same is inability to understand and analyse manipulative advertisements, lack of awareness and the relative unavailability of financial, social and at times legal resources.
Through this article I have attempted to provide a very rough overview of the consumer rights and would be glad to provide the details and help out anyone who may be in a need to address any grievance. Also I would request every reader of this article to spread the awareness by sharing this article or otherwise. Besides I would also encourage anyone to come forward with real life stories related to the same.
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