Indian Economy Quiz: Consumer Protection and Competition Law

The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 created a three-tier machinery and fixed a money limit for each tier: the district forum could hear a complaint where the value of the goods or services and the compensation claimed did not exceed twenty lakh rupees, the state commission took claims above that limit…

The Competition Act, 2002 rests on three pillars, and freedom of trade is the very thing it protects, so no provision of it prohibits trade; on the contrary, the Act opens by stating that it seeks to ensure freedom of trade carried on by other participants in markets in India.

The new Act widened the definition of a consumer to cover online, teleshopping and multi-level marketing purchases, created the Central Consumer Protection Authority, introduced product liability and rules for electronic commerce, allowed mediation and e-filing, and renamed the three redressal bodies as Commissions.

The CCPA is a regulator created by that Act to protect the interests of consumers as a class, and not merely to decide an individual complaint.

It is headed by a sitting or retired judge of the Supreme Court, hears complaints above the pecuniary limit prescribed for the State Commissions, and also hears appeals from them.

National Consumer Day marks the day on which the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 received the assent of the President of India, and it is observed every year with campaigns on consumer rights and on the machinery available for redressal.

The MRTP Act treated size itself as a danger and required large undertakings to obtain approval for expansion, which suited a controlled economy.

Appeals from the Commission were earlier heard by the Competition Appellate Tribunal, and that work was transferred to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, from whose order a further appeal lies to the Supreme Court.

A cartel is a horizontal agreement, that is one between enterprises at the same level of the production or supply chain, to fix prices, limit or control output, share markets or territories, or rig bids in a tender.

The Act of 2019 devotes a separate chapter to it, making a manufacturer, a product seller or a product service provider liable to pay compensation for harm caused by a defective product or a deficient service, whether the defect lies in manufacture, design, the deviation from specifications, a warranty or…

The Consumer Protection Act requires a complaint to be filed within two years from the date on which the cause of action arose, that is from the date of the defect, the deficiency in service or the unfair trade practice complained of.