The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 which came into force from Monday will empower consumers through its various notified provisions/rules relating to Consumer Protection Councils, Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions, Mediation, Product Liability and punishment for manufacture or sale of products containing adulterant/spurious goods. The gazette notification is already under publication for establishment of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) and rules for prevention of unfair trade practice in e-commerce.
To promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers, the Act includes establishment of the CCPA as its salient feature. The CCPA will conduct investigations into violations of consumer rights and institute complaints/prosecution, order recall of unsafe goods and services, order discontinuance of unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements, impose penalties on manufacturers/endorsers/publishers of misleading advertisements.
The new Consumer Protection Act provides for simplifying the consumer dispute adjudication process in the consumer commissions, which also include empowerment of the State and District The commissions are to review their own orders and enable consumers to file complaints electronically and also in consumer commissions that have jurisdiction over the place of his residence, videoconferencing for hearing and deemed admissibility of complaints if the question of admissibility is not decided within the specified period of 21 days.
An Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanism has been provided in the new Act in the form of Mediation which will simplify the adjudication process. If the parties agree for an early settlement, a complaint will be referred by a Consumer Commission for Mediation, which will be held in the Mediation Cells under the aegis of the Consumer Commissions. No appeal against settlement through mediation can be made. The concept of product liability is also introduced within the scope of the new Act along with product manufacturer, product service provider and product seller for any claim for compensation.
Punishment by a competent court for manufacture or sale of adulterant/spurious goods is also provided in this Act.
