...When we approach the market as a consumer, we expect value for moneyi.eright quality, right quantity, right prices, information about the mode of use, etc. But there may be instances where a consumer is harassed or cheated. An Act to provide for the better protection of the interest of consumers and for that purpose to make provision for the establishment of consumer councils and other authorities for the settlement of consumer disputes and for matters connected therewith. International Scenario: The process of development coupled with increasing liberalisation and globalisation across the country has enabled consumers to realise their increasingly important role in society and governance. However, concentration of the market power in the hands of a select few has affected consumers’ behaviour over time. In a developing country like India where the incidence of poverty and unemployment is very high and the level of literacy is very low, the people face a volume of problems, particularly in the context of consumer related issues. Unlike in the developed world, consumers in these countries have not been able to play a greater role in the development process. The purpose of economic planning is to allocate resources, as far as possible, for the maximum satisfaction of consumers’ needs. Any goods or services produced in an economy are ultimately meant for consumers. There is a logical, moral and political force in the proposition that the consumers themselves should have the right...
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...Term of “Consumer Protection” can be used to describe rules of law which recognize the bargaining weakness of the individual consumer and which ensure that weakness is not unfairly exploited. The growth of vast national and international companies and the standardization of their methods of production and distribution have led to an increased awareness for consumer protection. A responsible consumer is a consumer who is aware of his rights as a consumer, and act judiciously or wisely and with full responsibility. Some of the key consumer rights are : i. The consumer has the rights to obtain fundamental goods and services to guarantee a satisfactory life in today’s modern world. These fundamental needs include safe and sufficient food supply, clothes, housing, health facility and education. ii. The consumer is protected from the processing and marketing of goods as well as services, which can be harmful. iii. The consumer must be provided with sufficient, accurate and precise information to assist him in making the right decision. The consumer is also protected against false advertising, labeling and other fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices. iv. The consumer reserves the rights to have access to direct information with regards to all goods and services. The consumer must be given due explanation to enable him to make the right choices and decisions. There must be a guarantee to determine quality and satisfactory services, at a reasonable...
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...6/18/2010 STRENTHENING CONSUMER PROTECTION IN MALAYSIA Mohamed Iqbal b Mohd shafi HIQ TRAINING AND CONSULTANCY 1 1 6/18/2010 OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION 1. Definition of ‘consumer’ 2. What does consumer protection mean 3. Who is responsible for consumer protection in Malaysia 4. How is consumer protection being carried out 5. What can be done to strengthen consumer protection 2 2 6/18/2010 A. Misleading and deceptive conduct,False representation and Unfair practice •Bait advertising •Gifts, prizes, free offers •Claim that goods are limited •Demanding payment without intending to supply •Future services contract B. Safety of goods and services C. Consumer Guarantees D. Claims against manufacturers and suppliers of goods and services E. Tribunal for Consumer Claims PENALTY: Corporate:RM250,000500,000 Individual:RM100,000250,000 Jail term 3-6 years 3 3 6/18/2010 NATIONAL CONSUMER POLICY Launched on 26th of July 2002 Sets out consumer protection strategies: •To raise the standard of living •Laws to protect consumers •Fair and ethical trade •Consumer education •Sustainable consumption •Redressal mechanisms •Consumer forum between government,manufacturers and consumers •International cooperation in consumer matters 4 4 6/18/2010 Definition of ‘consumer’ A consumer is a person who acquires goods or services for personal, domestic or household purpose, use or consumption. He does not acquire them for trade, for use in manufacturing...
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...Consumer Protection Act 1987 The Consumer Protection Act 1987 This protects the public by: * -prohibiting the manufacture and supply of unsafe goods * -making the manufacturer or seller of a defective product responsible for damage it causes * -allowing local councils to seize unsafe goods and suspend the sale of suspected unsafe goods -prohibiting misleading price indications The first section defines what a product is which is defined as “any goods and electricity”. A good is further defined as substances, growing crops and things comprised inland by virtue of being attached to it and any ship, aircraft or vehicle. The second section defines who can be sued over negligence or a defective. It can be either someone who has put their name on a product through a trademark or brand. Another person that can potentially be sued is a person who brings in a good which does not meet regulations of the EU. Section three of the act defines what a defect is. A defect is when the product does not provide the safety which a person is entitled to expect. This is very contestable because expectation is subjective. In Bogle Vs Mcdonalds restaurants, Bogle said his coffee was defective because his coffee was too hot but he was unsuccessful because coffee is expected to be hot and he could not prove the temperature. Richardson Vs LRC products LTD. This is demonstrated in Richardson v LRC Products Ltd [2000] 59 BMLR 185 where a condom was held not to be defective even...
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...Commentary on consumer protection act Consumer Protection Act Introduction 1.1 The moment a person comes into this would, he starts consuming. He needs clothes, milk, oil, soap, water, and many more things and these needs keep taking one form or the other all along his life. Thus we all are consumers in the literal sense of the term. When we approach the market as a consumer, we expect value for money, i.e., right quality, right quantity, right prices, information about the mode of use, etc. But there may be instances where a consumer is harassed or cheated. The Government understood the need to protect consumers from unscrupulous suppliers, and several laws have been made for this purpose. We have the Indian Contract Act, the Sale of Goods Act, the Dangerous Drugs Act, the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marketing) Act, the Indian Standards Institution (Certification Marks) Act, the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, etc. which to some extent protect consumer interests. However, these laws require the consumer to initiate action by way of a civil suit involving lengthy legal process which is very expensive and time consuming. The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was enacted to provide a simpler and quicker access to redressal of consumer grievances. The Act for the first time introduced the concept of ‘consumer’ and conferred express additional rights on him. It is interesting to note that the Act doesn’t seek to protect every consumer within...
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...Before the Consumer Protection Act.1987 (CPA) was passed by UK parliament the attempts of taking action against manufacturers in regards to liability in negligence was challenging especially for the consumer as all rights were reserved to the customer or purchaser of products. This predicament sparked an increase of attentiveness toward product liability and lead to the implementation of the ‘Directive on Product Liability 1985’ and crucial alterations were made to UK consumer law. ‘Strict liability’ was imposed on the part of manufacturers. This gave rise to additional liability for manufacturers created through CPA in the event that a defect in a product causes damage(s); injury or loss. This is shown in Part 1 of the CPA where the system of strict liability is introduced for defective products to which cause harm. The key liability requirements under CPA and the European directive is that (i) claimant has suffered damages, (ii) product in question is defective and (iii) harm must be caused by a defect in the product providing that these requirements are met proof of negligence is not applicable on part of the claimant and the producer or manufacturer of the product is in every respect liable for any form of harm caused. Defences that can be used against claims under CPA include; ‘development risk’, ‘contributory negligence’, ‘Volenti non fit injuria’ and ‘Ex turpi causa’. The impracticalities of CPA are that a defected product must have caused harm as a requirement...
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...CONSUMER PROTECTION Even after sixty years of independence, the consumer is the most exploited segment of Indian society. During British rule, the colonial rulers exploited the Indian consumer to serve their own interests. He was cheated and fleeceds that wealth may continue to flow into England, the homeland of the imperialist rulers. However, things did not change even after independence. The consumer continued to be exploited and cheated in various ways by the traders, manufacturers, and industrialists in general. He was cheated both in quantity and quality of the goods he purchased. There was cheating at the time of weighing the gods and fancy prices were charged in the absence of any controls and tags indicating the price of article he purchased. Even when the price was indicated the words,” local taxes extra” provided ample scope for cheating. In the absence of any quality-control measures, adulterated goods were sold to him. Essential consumer items like milk, ghee, condiments, pulses, rice, wheat, etc., were all adulterated and sometimes such adulteration proved to be a serious health hazard. Even medicines he purchased were spurious and of inferior quality, sometimes resulting even in the death of the patient concerned. But no effective steps were taken to check such exploitation. The consumer remained helpless because he did not have any organized body or union of his own. Even when now and then, such organizations have been formed, they have remained helpless before...
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...3. Review the sexual harassment policy that Teddy's has in place and that Virginia Pollard signed. Virginia Pollard claims she had planned to make an anonymous complaint but the website allowing that was down on the day she tried to do so. During the Human Rights Commission case, a review of the website statistics shows that Virginia accessed the website for downloading dental coverage forms at least three times during the time frame of the alleged discrimination. The commission determined that this ability of Teddy's to track employees' use of the site was a violation of their anonymity and therefore refused to consider this information. The circuit court did consider this in their decision. Provide three recommendations to the CEO for a way to ensure that employees in the future cannot claim "technical issues" for why they didn't make a complaint. Explain, in your recommendations, the legal consequences to an employee if they do not utilize the complaint mechanism of the sexual harassment policy. Support these recommendations with current case law. To ensure that an employee cannot claim technical issues in the future: 1. The website statistics should be reviewed on a regular basis by the webmaster to verify if there have been periods of downtime on the site. Any downtime is automatically logged by the system and should be reported to the webmaster immediately following any unusual outages such as a power failure or server issues. The webmaster should document any outages...
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...U.S. Governments Role in Consumer Protection & Advertising The United States government has continued to grow in size and influence, its effect on marketing is no exception. Consumer protection and product safety include the efforts made by government, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals to create, protect, and enforce the rights of consumers who buy products or services. This may also be identified as consumerism, or the organized efforts of individuals, groups, and organizations to protect the rights of consumers (Pride102). Consumer protection was brought upon through several medians, but is primarily attributed to background legislation. The first major federal law to affect the marketing environment was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which prohibited contracts, combinations, and conspiracies to restrain trade, in an attempt to discourage monopolies (Pride 73). Many federal laws regarding consumer protection have since followed, such as the Wheeler-Lea Act of 1936 and the FTC Act of 1914. Such legislation is generally the work of the Federal Trade Commission, which was created in the aforementioned FTC Act of 1914, and is considered the primary consumer protection agency at the federal level. By the 1950’s the consumerism movement had a substantial following and consumers began pushing for legal protection against malicious business practices. Two of the most well known and significant consumer activists are Ralph Nader and the late John...
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...Cyberspace Consumer Protections Legal, Political & Ethical Dimensions of Business - MGT520 April 12, 2015 Professor James Keenan The modern day convenience of the internet has simplified life. Almost anything can be done via the internet. Shopping, research, book reading, CD downloads, ordering takeout and groceries are just some of the conveniences the internet has afforded us. However, these conveniences are not without risk. These risks, according to The White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection, “threaten national security, private enterprises and individual rights”. (The White House, 2015) The exponential rise and subsequent crimes of the internet have made it necessary to establish measures that protect consumers from risks such as fraud and identity theft. While these measures do offer protections to the consumer, as is the intent, they sometimes come at a cost to businesses. For example, if a customer’s credit/debit card information was stolen and unauthorized purchases were made, the customer has the ability to file a claim with the issuer of the card. The credit issuer or bank takes the loss for said purchase after an investigation determines fraud has occurred. According to the 2013 Nilson report, card issuers bore a 63% share of fraudulent losses and merchants assumed the remaining 37% liability in 2012. (as cited in Kiernan, 2015) What are the legal implications of advances in internet technologies and the impact those protections have...
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...In an era of free competition where 'Consumer is KING', show the need for consumer protection and whether the KING needs protection Contents 1. INTRODUCTION: 3 1.1. NEED FOR CONSUMER PROTECTION 4 1.2. THE PURPOSE OF CONSUMER PROTECTION 5 1.3. CONSUMERISM 5 1.4. CONSUMER RIGHTS 5 2. CONSUMER GUIDANCE SOCIETY OF INDIA (CGSI) 9 2.1. FUNCTIONS OF CGSI: 9 2.2. ACHIEVEMENTS & FEATURES: 10 3. CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, 1986: 11 3.1. IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THE ACT: 11 3.2. CONSUMER 12 3.2.1. CONSUMER OF GOODS 12 3.2.2. CONSUMER OF SERVICES 16 3.3. COMPLAINT 18 3.3.1. CONSTITUTES OF A COMPLAINT 18 3.3.2. ELIGIBILITY FOR FILING A COMPLAINT 18 3.3.3. REQUIREMENTS OF A COMPLAINT 20 3.3.4. TIME FRAME WITHIN WHICH A COMPLAINT CAN BE FILED 21 3.3.5. RELIEF AVAILABLE AGAINST COMPLAINT 22 3.3.6. CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN A COMPLAINT CANNOT BE FILED 23 3.3.7. DISMISSAL OF FRIVOLOUS AND VEXATIOUS COMPLAINTS 24 3.4. UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICE AND RESTRICTIVE TRADE PRACTICE 24 3.5. CONSUMER PROTECTION COUNCILS 28 3.6. DISPUTE SETTLEMENT THREE TIER MECHANISM 28 4. CASE STUDIES: 30 4.1. CASE 1: INDIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION V/S V.P. SHANTA AND OTHERS 30 4.2. CASE 2: MR. MAHAVIR D. CHOPDA VS SVKM’S NMIMS UNIVERSITY 33 5. GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES FOR PROTECTION OF CONSUMER RIGHTS & STATISTICS 50 6. ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS 53 7. COMPARITIVE STUDY OF CPA IN INDIA AND BRAZIL: 55 8. CONCLUSION: 58 9. RECOMMENDATIONS 58 10. BIBLIOGRAPHY 60 1. INTRODUCTION: In the...
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...ARE THE CONSUMER PROTECTION LEGISLATION EFFICACIOUS ENOUGH TO PROTECT THE CONSUMER RIGHTS IN PAKISTAN OR ELSE A NATIONAL STRATEGY IS NEEDED TO EVOKE MASSIVE AWARENESS, ENSURE IMPLEMENTATION OF EXISTING LAWS, APPORTION LIABILITIES AND PROTECT OUR CONSUMER? CONSUMER PROTECTION LEGISTATION IN PAKISTAN “Governments should develop or maintain a strong consumer protection policy, taking into account the guidelines and relevant international agreements. In so doing, each Government should set its own priorities for the protection of consumers in accordance with the economic, social and environmental circumstances of the country and the needs of its population, bearing in mind the costs and its benefits proposed measures.” (Excerpts from the United Nations Guidelines for consumer protection) Introduction 1. Law and Justice System reforms have been high on the agenda of international political as well as development, donor and leading agencies for the past two decades or so.2 As a consequence there has been a great deal of debate revolving round the legal reform process, and several new laws previously unheard of in most of the developing countries have been introduced. In addition to international pressures, reforms have also been high on the agenda of civil society organizations. A survey of the history of consumer protection law reveals that it has gained currency more due to the efforts of the civil society organizations working for consumer rights and the spread of market...
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...9 CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT 1999 | Application: offer or supply of goods to one or more consumers Application: offer or supply of goods to one or more consumers Meaning of consumer: a person who acquires or uses goods or services ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household purpose; S3 Meaning of consumer: a person who acquires or uses goods or services ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household purpose; S3 S.6(1): cannot exclude the operation of CPA 1999 S.6(1): cannot exclude the operation of CPA 1999 3. Implied Guarantee as To Fitness for Particular Purpose Sec. 33(1) – Implied: goods are reasonably fit for any particular purpose known by consumer, expressly or by implication to the supplier as the purpose it is purchased However, if supplier represents goods fit for a particular purpose, it should also be reasonably fit for that purpose. Does not apply: Consumer doesn’t rely on the supplier’s skill/judgment or if unreasonable to do so Goods used for other than normal purpose (known to supplier), must be reasonably fit for that purpose 3. Implied Guarantee as To Fitness for Particular Purpose Sec. 33(1) – Implied: goods are reasonably fit for any particular purpose known by consumer, expressly or by implication to the supplier as the purpose it is purchased However, if supplier represents goods fit for a particular purpose, it should also be reasonably fit for that purpose. Does not apply: Consumer doesn’t rely on the supplier’s...
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...Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), 1991 Juel A. Todman BIS/220 Introduction to Computer Application and Systems June 16, 2014 Dr. David Wagner Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), 1991 Advances in Information Technology have made access to sensitive information with great concern. Privacy has to be paramount as the internet broadens its horizon strategically. Various acts had to be implemented to protect the privacy of individuals. The act that I am going to talk about is the Telephone Consumer Act of 1991, (TPCA). The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 was passed and enacted by Congress, in response to consumer concerns about the growing number of unsolicited telephone calls by telemarketers and the increasing use of automated and prerecorded messages. In response, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules that require anyone making telephone solicitation calls to your home must provide their names, and the name of the person or company on whose behalf the call was being made. The rules also prohibited telephone solicitation calls to your home before 8 am or after 9 pm, and required telemarketers to comply with any do-not-call request you make directly to the caller during the solicitation call. The implementation of the National Do-Not-Call Registry informed Telemarketers that they had up to 31 days from the day you registered your telephone number to remove it from their call lists. In June 2003, the FCC supplemented...
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...E-COMMERCE: CONSUMERS RIGHTS AND PROTECTION ON THE INTERNET PICHAYAPONG PICHAYAPONGS U 3055471 CONTENTS I INTRODUCTION 3 II THE EUROPEAN DIRECTIVE OF 20 MAY 1997 CONCERNING DISTANCE CONTRACTS 3 A The distance contract 4 B Written confirmation 5 C Cooling-off period 5 D Tax payable on goods 5 E Credit card fraud 6 F Special protection 6 G Directive 97/7/EC of The European Parliament and of The Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts 7 III SECURITY AND CONFIDENCE ON THE WEB 7 A Asymmetrical cryptography 8 B Electronic payments 9 1 Europe Adopts Legislation to Expedite E-payments 9 C The labelling of websites 9 IV GOVERNMENT REGULATION 10 V CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION 10 VI REFERENCE 11 I INTRODUCTION In the past decade, the boom of the internet in Europe and the emergence of e-commerce has led to a broader of the commercial offers that can be proposed to the consumers. Indeed, an expansion in internet offering come the demand for online security regarding the rights and interests of the internet users and also the development of the internet implies a certain number of adaptations to efficiently protect the consumer. In Europe, a person considered as a consumer is protected by the consumer rights.[1] As texts and laws directly dealing with e-commerce are very uncommon, on 20th May 1997 the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive 97/7/EC regarding the protection of consumers...
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