Consumer Rights: Class 10 Economics · Chapter 5

Have you ever bought a charger that melted in a week, or been asked to pay more than the price printed on a packet? Most people grumble and let it go. A few take the seller to a consumer commission and win a refund or compensation, sometimes after a long fight. In 2024 alone, consumer commissions in the states received about 1.6 lakh new cases.

This chapter asks three questions. Why are buyers so often at a disadvantage in the market? What rights does the law give them? And what can you actually do when a purchase goes wrong?

5.1 The consumer in the marketplace

Each of us plays two roles in the market. A farmer selling wheat, or a nurse paid for her shift, is acting as a producer. When the same people buy soap, a bus ticket or a mobile recharge for their own use, they are consumers (उपभोक्ता). Everything the three sectors produce finally reaches consumers as goods and services for use.

Wherever one side of a deal is much weaker, the law has to step in. You met two such cases earlier in this book: labour laws for unorganised workers (Chapter 2) and limits on informal moneylenders (Chapter 3). Buyers need the same kind of shield, because the seller usually knows more and holds more power.

Take Sanjay, who buys a ceiling fan that starts wobbling a week later. The shop says the company is to blame. The company's service centre says the shop fitted it badly. Both hint that he should have checked it before paying. The message is clear: the fan is now Sanjay's problem, not theirs.

Buyers also lose through deliberate tricks, known as unfair trade practices. The commonest are easy to list: a scale that cheats, a bill that grows at the counter, food bulked up with something cheaper and goods that turn out faulty or spoilt. Bulking up food this way is adulteration (मिलावट). Four of these tricks are drawn in Fig. 5.1.

Underneath these tricks lies unequal power (Fig. 5.2). A large company has money, advertising and lawyers. A household buys a packet or two and complains, if at all, on its own; to a firm with crores of customers one complaint hardly registers. Big firms can also shape what people believe. An energy drink may be sold as 'doctor-approved', or a herbal tea as a quick cure for weight gain, with no evidence at all. Proving such claims false can take years.

That is why markets need rules that protect buyers, and people who make sure the rules are obeyed. The consumer movement grew out of this need.

5.2 Consumer movement

Not long ago, a cheated buyer could do little more than walk away and shop elsewhere next time. The law offered no special help, and the common attitude was summed up in two words: buyer, beware. If the rice had stones in it, people said, you should have looked more carefully. The consumer movement (उपभोक्ता आंदोलन) set out to change that attitude.

In India, citizens began to organise in the 1960s. Those were years of food scarcity. Traders hoarded grain to raise prices, sold scarce goods on the black market, and adulterated food and cooking oil. Groups of angry citizens came together to resist. Their first tools were the pen and the public meeting: newsletters, articles and exhibitions that showed people how they were being cheated. Some groups kept watch over ration shops; others took up the daily misery of packed buses. In later decades the number of consumer groups multiplied.

Slowly the movement moved the burden from the buyer to the seller (Fig. 5.3). Today the law expects a seller to supply goods and services of proper quality and to answer for faults, instead of leaving buyers to discover them too late.

Pressure from consumer groups pushed both businesses and the government to act. In 1986 Parliament passed the Consumer Protection Act, known as COPRA (उपभोक्ता संरक्षण अधिनियम). It created special bodies to settle consumer complaints quickly and cheaply, which you will meet later in this chapter (redressal).

5.3 Consumer rights

The law lists the rights that every consumer in India has, and the 2019 Act names six. You are protected from hazardous goods and services (safety) and entitled to be told the facts (information). You may pick from a variety of goods at fair prices (choice) and be heard (representation). You may seek redressal for a wrong, and you have a right to consumer awareness (education). Fig. 5.4 groups them; this section takes them one at a time.

Safety is everyone's right

A faulty helmet or a badly wired lift is not just poor value; it can kill. That is why the first consumer right is the right to safety: protection against goods and services that put life or property at risk. Gas cylinders, school buses, medicines and even a plate of street food all need care. Safety depends on two links holding together. The maker must build to the safety standard, and inspectors must check that it does. When either link is weak, and buyers stay silent, dangerous goods stay on the shelves.

Information about goods and services

Pick up any packet in your kitchen. The printing on it is not decoration: the law requires it. The packaging rules under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 list what a pre-packed item must show. That includes the name and address of the maker or packer, what the product is, its net quantity and the date of manufacture or packing. It also includes the MRP and a customer-care contact, and packaged food must carry a 'use by' or expiry date. Fig. 5.5 shows where to look.

The label puts the right to information into practice: you are entitled to know the quality, quantity, price and other facts of what you buy. With the facts in hand you can compare products, avoid expired goods and prove your case if something goes wrong. A shop cannot charge more than the printed MRP (अधिकतम खुदरा मूल्य), even as a 'cooling charge'. It may sell for less, and you are free to bargain. Selling medicines past their expiry date is a punishable offence.

Labels also tell you how to use a product safely: the age range on a toy, the voltage on a charger, or 'store below 25 °C' on a bottle of syrup.

The right to information also reaches the government. The Right to Information (RTI) Act, which came fully into force on 12 October 2005, lets any citizen ask a public office about its work. You apply in writing with a small fee (₹10 for offices of the central government), and the office must normally reply within 30 days.

When choice is denied

The right to choose means you decide whether to buy, what to buy and from whom, from a range of goods at fair prices. A seller violates it by forcing you to take something you did not ask for. In a festival rush a grocer may sell sugar only to those who also buy his tea. A car dealer may insist that you buy its own insurance before delivery. Forced bundling of this kind is called a tie-in sale.

Choice is also denied when a service provider collects a large sum in advance and then refuses to let you leave, however poor the service. Paying up front should not trap you: you may stop a bad service and claim back the fees for the part you have not used.

Where should consumers go to get justice?

Unsafe goods, missing information and forced purchases all wrong the consumer. The right to seek redressal (निवारण) means the consumer can demand a remedy: a repair, a replacement, a refund or compensation that matches the harm done. A right like this is only as good as the place where you can claim it, and that place must be cheap and simple enough for an ordinary buyer.

That system is the network of consumer commissions, formally Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions; older books call them consumer courts or forums. A consumer can file a complaint personally, without a lawyer. A group of consumers with the same grievance, such as all the buyers in one housing project, can file a single joint complaint, called a class action. Since the 2019 Act you can file where you live or work, not only where the seller is. You can also file online, and hearings can be held by video. Fig. 5.6 follows one complaint from start to finish.

Before going to a commission it often helps to call the National Consumer Helpline on 1915 (or 1800-11-4000). It takes complaints in 17 languages and passes them to the companies concerned, and many disputes end there. If that fails, a complaint can be filed on the government's e-Jagriti portal or at the commission's office, within two years of the problem. There is no fee when the value of the goods or service is up to ₹5 lakh.

Help is also available from citizens' groups. Consumer protection councils, also called consumer forums, are voluntary bodies; think of them as a consumer's advisers. They explain the filing procedure, help draft complaints and may even argue a case for someone. Many run awareness drives, often with government grants. A residents' welfare association may also take up a complaint for all the families in a colony, for instance against a builder who never provided the promised water supply.

The commissions work at three levels (Fig. 5.7). There is a District Commission for every district, 685 in all, and there are 35 State Commissions for the states and Union Territories. At the top is the National Commission in New Delhi (PIB, 29 July 2025). They are quasi-judicial: they hear both sides and pass binding orders like a court, but with simpler procedures. Which tier you approach depends on the value of the goods or services you paid for. A consumer who loses in the District Commission can appeal to the State Commission, and then to the National Commission.

Because the law lets consumers and their organisations put their case before these bodies and before the government, it also gives them the right to representation: the right to be heard.

5.4 Learning to become well-informed consumers

Rights help only those who know them. A well-informed consumer knows what to check before buying, keeps the bill and warranty, and knows where to complain. Being such a buyer is a skill learnt by practice, which is why consumer education is itself a right.

Governments, too, took on the job of teaching consumers. Both the Centre and the states now have Departments of Consumer Affairs, created after COPRA. The central department runs the Jago Grahak Jago ('Wake up, consumer') campaign on television, radio, posters and social media. In 2022 it added a mascot, Jagriti, drawn as a confident young consumer. Your textbook shows two of these posters: one links consumer rights to a healthy environment, and one reminds businesses how much they depend on their customers.

Standard marks: ISI, Agmark, Hallmark and +F

How can you judge the quality of a bag of cement or a jar of honey just by looking at it? You cannot, so you rely on a standard mark. A standards body writes a quality standard, tests samples, and licenses its mark to a producer only for as long as the product passes. This is standardisation (मानकीकरण). Fig. 5.8 describes the four marks in your textbook; it shows plain tags with their names, not the official logos.

• ISI mark: given by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for industrial and household goods such as electrical appliances, cement and gas cylinders. The name comes from the Indian Standards Institution, which became BIS in 1987.
• Agmark: a grade mark for farm produce such as honey, ghee, spices, pulses and edible oils, given by the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI) of the Ministry of Agriculture.
• Hallmark: certifies the purity of gold and silver articles, through BIS. Since 1 July 2021 hallmarked gold carries three marks: the BIS mark, the purity (for example 22K916) and a six-character code called HUID, which you can verify on the BIS CARE app.
• +F: the logo of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for fortified food: staples such as rice, wheat flour, salt, milk and edible oil with added nutrients like iron, iodine or vitamins A and D.

Is every product tested this way? No. For most goods the maker can choose whether to apply for a mark. The exceptions are goods whose failure could hurt people, or that almost every household buys; for these the government insists on certification. Cement, LPG cylinders, bottled drinking water and food colours are on that compulsory list, and hallmarking of gold jewellery became compulsory in stages from June 2021.

You may also see 'ISO 9001 certified' on a company's website. ISO, the International Organization for Standardization in Geneva, writes international standards. Independent certification bodies check whether a company follows them and issue the certificate. An ISO certificate is about how a firm is managed; it is not a test of each product.

5.5 Taking the consumer movement forward

Every year on 24 December, India marks National Consumers' Day. The date recalls the day in 1986 when the Consumer Protection Act received the President's assent. (The world marks 15 March as World Consumer Rights Day.) India also belongs to the group of countries with bodies set up solely for consumer disputes.

The movement has grown. By your textbook's count there are over 2,000 consumer groups, but only 50 to 60 of them have a strong organisation and a recognised record. Consumers can now complain by phone, app or website, and the commissions decide well over a lakh cases a year (Table 5.2).

Yet justice is still hard to reach. Picture a buyer cheated of ₹200 at a local shop. She probably has no bill to prove the sale. A case would mean forms, hearings and days off work, perhaps a lawyer's fee, and a wait of months. Most people decide it is not worth it, and sellers know this. Labour laws for unorganised workers and the rules that govern markets are often poorly enforced as well.

What the 2019 Act changed

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 tried to tackle some of these problems. Its main changes are set out in the comparison below.

The Act also set up the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), working since 24 July 2020. Commissions settle individual disputes; the CCPA acts for consumers as a whole. It can investigate on its own, order unsafe goods to be recalled and stop unfair trade practices. It can fine the maker or endorser of a false or misleading advertisement up to ₹10 lakh, and up to ₹50 lakh for a repeat offence. It can also bar an endorser from endorsing any product for up to a year, or three years for a repeat.

Mediation (मध्यस्थता) lets the two sides reach their own settlement, guided by a neutral mediator attached to the commission, if both agree. A settlement reached this way cannot be appealed. Product liability means that the maker, the seller or the service provider must compensate a consumer harmed by a defective product or a deficient service, whether the purchase was made in a shop or online. Online sellers must also follow the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020.

Laws and portals cannot work on their own. Awareness has grown since 1986, yet many buyers still do not know where to complain. In the end the movement is only as strong as the buyers in it: people who ask for bills, read labels, report cheating and back one another.