Concept of Consumer Protection

Consumer protection means safeguarding the interest and rights of consumers. In other words, it refers to the measures adopted for the protection of consumers from unscrupulous and unethical malpractices by the business and to provide them speedy redressal of their grievances.

The most common business malpractices leading to consumer exploitation are:

Sale of adulterated goods i.e., adding something inferior to the product being sold.
Sale of spurious goods i.e., selling something of little value instead of the real product.
Sale of sub-standard goods i.e., sale of goods which do not confirm to prescribed quality standards.
Sale of duplicate goods.
Use of false weights and measures leading to underweight.
Hoarding and black-marketing leading to scarcity and rise in price.
Charging more than the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) fixed for the product.
Supply of defective goods.
Misleading advertisements i.e., advertisements falsely claiming a product or service to be of superior quality, grade or standard.
Supply of inferior services i.e., quality of service lower than the quality agreed upon.

These instances show the exploitation of consumers in the context of goods and services. In a democratic nation like India, should we allow this to happen? So the measures adopted by the government or non-government organisations (NGOs) for safeguarding the interests of the consumers constitute consumer protection.

Examples of Consumer Exploitation in India

The after sales service provider of the television set charged Rs 200 as service charge though he repaired the set within the warranty period.
The tickets issued to different passengers on the same day for the same journey showed the same seat number.
Penalty of Rs. 50 was charged by SBI after issuing the cheque book to the customer showing that the balance available in the account was less than the minimum required balance for issue of cheque book.
The supply of cooking gas cylinder to the consumers is found to be underweight.