FESTIVAL BONANZA-ARE YOU REALLY REWARDED AS ADVERTISED

Coming ahead is the season of festivals and news papers are full of rosy offers of discounts and prizes Not only that, number of pamphlets wrapped in the news paper also reveal number of schemes floated by the  various business houses on the occasion of these festivals .Attractive prizes and draw coupons are offered You may get one item  free by making one purchase. Discount upto 50% is left behind ,now they say discount upto 70%.What makes the general public puzzle is as to how can a seller afford to meet such offers .But surprisingly every one is allured and do rush to the market to make the best bargain  .What we find at the end of the day is- the item we purchase under the scheme ‘buy one get one free” has hardly made us advantageous because you have paid Rs 200/- for the item which is otherwise available at the cost of Rs 100/- only Now the question here is as to whether you can haul them up for  misleading  and misguiding you. A lot of things are to be checked for attracting the provisions of unfair trade practices under the  Consumer Protection Act.1986 [Amended 2002];The Consumer Protection Act as amended in 2002 has a special clause for unfair trade practices as hereunder;

Section 2[r] defines  unfair trade practice which includes false representation made 

About goods ,its quality and standard,

About services ,its quality and grade

About old ,second hand or renovated goods as the new one ,

 About sponsorship, approval or affiliation

Makes misleading statement about warranty/guarantee of the product

While keeping these provisions in mind  we must check

1.      Whether it is printed upto 70%discount or 70% discount because invariably we  miss the words UPTO and when we reach the shopping spot ,we find only one or two items under 70%off are available  .Upto word is generally written in  very small print

2.      While opting for “buy one  get one free scheme” ,must check the cost of the item /MRP printed on the item ,it should be printed or stamped and not pasted .In case it is pasted ,there is all possibility of some changes made in the cost

3.      Offer of prize coupons if made ,must be deliverd there and then at the time of purchase , promise to send later is also a doubtful question

4.      Promise to make a draw after one month or so if made ,specific dates must be checked at the time of purchase

Not only these attraction ,at times it has been noticed that seller makes huge claims of having special quality of their product and charges more for that but later on found statement incorrect and consumer left cheated by parting more money for no special features

The fundamental principal to define such acts under unfair trade practices is –what promise has been made by the seller and ,whether such promise has been fulfilled .Promise made by the seller is by what mode-it can be advertisement in printed form,through media or even verbally .Verbal commitment is no commitment as it cannot be proved ,hence not reliable But if you are allured through printed ads ,you will have a good case before the consumer court to ask for compensation for indulging into unfair trade practice by misleading and misguiding you  

            There was an interesting case before the High court of Maharashtra in the year 2009 when court banned a company  Colgate-palmolive Ltd  to advertise their product ,the tooth pastthrough interim order because they had used  the words ONLY  and FIRST  in the advertisement.It read as hereunder:

“ anchor tooth past is the only tooth past containing triclosan ,calcium and flourida and that is the first tooth past providing all round protection.”

Court issued an interim order to the erring company for stopping their advertisement by using false statement which was objected by Beauty Care Pvt Ltd and many others The contesting party look the objection that the word ONLY denotes that such ingredients as specified by the company are not used in other toothpast and that the word FIRST sends the message they are the first to introduce the product providing all round protection .Company was to prove this claim but instead of defending themselves or proving the same, Colgate Palmolive admitted that they did not mean what they had advertised in the TV  Hence it was clear that the ad so given was false falling under the category of unfair trade practice  .Reliance was taken on the principal laid down in the  earlier judgement pronounced by the Apex court, the Supreme Court of India in 1999 in the matter of Colgate –Palmolive India Ltd v Hindustan lever Ltd 7 SCC1[1999] the court had held that issue of injunction is usually at the earliest possible ,hence should be stopped immediately

In yet another case of Society of Catalyst V Vodaphone Essar Mobile Services Ltd [SCDRC-Delhi 751 CTJ 2008

An alluring slogan ‘baton se banaiye sona bees minute mein’-prizes in form of gold coins and a bumper prize of maruti sx4 offered –scheme or contest open to only subscribers of the respondents services and that too only to those whose talk time on their cell phone exceed 20 minutes a day .Many of the subscribers alleged to have felt induced to make unnecessary calls to participate in the contest ,scheme evidently floated for business promotion .Broadly it comes within the ambit of lottery ,it served no interest of the subscribers –a highly misleading impression created that participation was free of charges .State Commission of Delhi imposed Rs 50 lacs of punitive damages to the opposite party and directed all cellular operators to discontinue such a practice forthwith

We see day in and day out number of advertisements like the one published in Times of India ,september 5^th ,2010

Tdi City kundali sonepat

The best investment

Destination of NCR

no red light .no traffic jam .only 15 minutes drive from Pitampura /Rohini

See the above  advertisement for BEST investment [who to decide it],and also for surety of no traffic jam [which is a rare scene now a days.]no red light [who can stop authorities if they install red light later on if required ]

It is the public now to check whether they are being guided by the words and spirit of the message being spread                                               Prem lata

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