CCPA Issues 24 Notices for Unfair Trade Practices Against E-Commerce Firms

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has issued 24 notices for unfair trade practices against e-commerce companies, informed the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on Wednesday. In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ashwini Kumar Choubey said that apart from these 24 notices, CCPA also issued two Safety Notices to alert and make consumers cautious against buying household goods like pressure cookers, helmets etc that do not conform to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

Choubey informed that under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, CCPA has been established with effect from July 24, 2020 to regulate matters, inter alia, relating to false or misleading advertisements which are prejudicial to the interests of the public and consumers as a class.

The CCPA has notified the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022 on June 9, 2022. These guidelines provide for conditions for an advertisement to be non-misleading and valid; certain stipulations in respect of bait advertisements and free claim advertisements; and prohibition of surrogate advertisements.

The minister also informed that under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, a consumer can file a consumer complaint in the Consumer Commission of appropriate jurisdiction offline or online using e-Daakhil portal. As per the revised pecuniary jurisdiction, a District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission has jurisdiction to entertain complaints where the value of the goods or services paid as consideration does not exceed Rs. 50 lakh.

According to the Ministry, the State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission and the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission have jurisdication where such consideration is above Rs. 50 lakh and upto Rs. 2 crore and above Rs. 2 crore respectively.

The Consumer Protection (Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions) Rules, 2020 notified under the ibid Act provides that no fees is required for registering cases in the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions involving value of goods or services paid as consideration upto Rs. 5 lakh.

Further, Section 38(7) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 prescribes that every complaint shall be disposed of as expeditiously as possible and endeavour shall be made to decide the complaint within a period of three months from the date of receipt of notice by an Opposite party where the complaint does not require analysis or testing of commodities and within five months if it requires analysis or testing of commodities.

Department of Consumer Affairs has generated consumer awareness under “JagoGrahakJago” campaign among all the consumers of the country through video spots and other material on issues like salient features of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, packaged commodities, weights and measures, hallmark, consumer grievance redressal mechanism through departmental website, State or Union Territory governments, VCOs, TV, Radio, CSCs.

Regular messages on these issues are being posted on social media to harness its potential to create consumer awareness. State/UT governments have been involved to spread consumer awareness in rural and remote areas.

The Department of Consumer Affairs has recently launched “Jagriti”, a mascot for empowering consumers and generating awareness of their rights. Jagriti is projected as an empowered young consumer.

With this, the Department of Consumer Affairs has also constituted a committee to develop a framework on checking fake and deceptive reviews in e-commerce.