The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution on 22nd November 2021 has initiated a country-wide campaign to prevent sale of spurious and counterfeit goods that violate Quality Control Orders published by the Central Government.
Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has already issued directions to district collectors across the country to investigate unfair trade practices and violation of consumer rights concerning manufacture or sale of such goods. Essential, daily use products which have been identified for the campaign are Helmets, Pressure Cooker and Cooking Gas Cylinders.
Under Section 2(10) the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, “defect” means any fault, imperfection or shortcoming in the quality, quantity, potency, purity or standard which is required to be maintained by or under any law for the time being in force or under any contract, express or implied or as is claimed by the trader in any manner whatsoever in relation to any goods or product and the expression “defective” shall be construed accordingly.
Thus, Pressure Cookers which do not conform to the compulsory standards are liable to be held ‘defective’ under the Act.
Rule 4(2) of the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 specifies that no e-commerce entity shall adopt any unfair trade practice, whether the in course of business on its platform or otherwise.
Moreover, Section 17 of the BIS Act prohibits any person to manufacture, import, distribute, sell, hire, lease, store or exhibit for sale any such goods or article for which direction of compulsory use of Standard Mark has been published by the Central Government under Section 16(1).
