The essentials
A consumer is a person who buys goods or hires services for a price for personal use, not for resale or commercial purposes. Consumers often face problems such as adulteration, short weights and measures, poor quality, duplicate products, high prices, misleading advertisements, lack of information and poor after-sales service. Consumer education gives people the knowledge and skills to choose wisely and protect themselves; consumer protection includes laws, standards and organisations that safeguard their interests.
India's Consumer Protection Act, 2019 replaced the 1986 Act. It provides a three-tier quasi-judicial system of Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions at district, state and national levels, and set up a Central Consumer Protection Authority to act against unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements.
Key points
- Consumer rights: right to safety, right to be informed, right to choose, right to be heard, right to seek redressal, right to consumer education (also recognised internationally: basic needs and a healthy environment).
- Consumer responsibilities: check quality marks, ask for a bill or receipt, read labels, avoid buying adulterated or unbranded goods, file genuine complaints.
- Standard marks: ISI (industrial products, BIS); Agmark (agricultural produce); Hallmark (purity of gold and silver jewellery, BIS); Ecomark (environment-friendly products); Silk Mark; Woolmark.
- National Consumer Day: 24 December; World Consumer Rights Day: 15 March.
- Consumer organisations and voluntary groups educate consumers and help them file complaints.
Exam tips
Case questions often describe a problem and ask which right was violated. Unsafe product → safety; no expiry date → information; forced brand → choice; complaint ignored → redressal or right to be heard.
Common mistakes
A person who buys goods to resell them is not a consumer under the Act.