Consumer Protection Bill 2019 passed by the LS last week which will replace the existing Consumer Protection Act, 1986 has more or less received wide appreciation. It has introduced many new provisions to save the consumers from being cheated particularly by the evolving methods of duping, which according to many experts was necessary to keep in tune with the fast changing times.

Although there are clear laws in the country to defend various consumer rights, in reality, consumers remain at the receiving end and there are thousands of instances to show their gullibility. And it was increasingly felt that the original Act that came into force in 1986 has lost its edge in current context since there has been a sea change in the way goods and services are bought and sold over these three decades. Keeping in view of the reality that it’s an e-commerce era that is only going to extend over coming decades, the new Bill has tried to address the practicalities by bringing within its ambit online sales, tele-shopping, direct selling and multi-level marketing, the first of such things to happen. But the setting up of a regulatory authority known as the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) with an authority to carry out investigations into violations of consumer rights, recall unsafe goods and services, discontinue unfair trade practices & misleading advertisements and more importantly impose penalties including imprisonment has been viewed as a proactive inclusion for reinforcement of consumer rights in India. District and State consumer bodies have also been made more relevant since they will now be able to entertain complaints relating to products and services of substantially higher values than the erstwhile law. Misleading advertisement proponents, inclusive of the endorsers are going to have a tough time. Not only manufacturers and service providers, celebrity endorsers too, will now face fines and jail terms for making misleading claims in advertisements made virtually over any medium, be it television, radio, print, outdoor ads, e-commerce, direct selling and telemarketing. To deal with the problem of huge and increasing backlog cases and for moving things fast, an alternative dispute resolution mechanism has been tried through the setting up of mediation cells attached to district forums, state and national commissions. But experts also opine that the issue of ‘disguise advertising’ like those seen in alcohol, cigarettes and paan masala hasn’t been touched, which was an expectation.

As a whole, the Bill has got some solid inclusions that show promise for addressing the constantly emerging vulnerabilities of the new age consumers. But its real success will depend on proper implementation with due emphasis on time-bound mitigations.