Stores Charging for Carry bags are unfair trade practice
This happens with every one day in and day out that after picking up number of item for purchase from a store and coming to the counter for payment ,you are asked-do you want small bag or bigger one . Small bag costs you Rs. 5 and for bigger one you need to pay seven rupees or so.You are not prepared though you must have spent more than thousand rupees but this demand you find not justified and it spoils your good day.
Now store manager has many reasons to convince you –Government has banned plastic bags and we cannot afford to provide paper bags or other costly bags made of other material free to the customers. In Feb , 2019 the district forum Chandigarh had ordered Lifestyle, a retail store at Elante Mall to provide free carry bags to customers forthwith who purchase articles from the shop.Lifestyle had filed an appeal challenging the order passed and requested to stay the order referring to notification called the “Plastic Waste (Management And Handling) Rules, 2011 and cited Rule 10 regarding “Explicit pricing of carry bags” he said rules read that
“No carry bag shall be made available free of cost by retailers to consumers. The concerned municipal authority may by notification determine the minimum price for carry bags depending upon their quality and size which covers their material and waste management cost in order to encourage their reuse so as to minimize plastic waste generation.”
Advocate for complainant argued that the said notification was not relevant. Even otherwise, the said notification has been repealed long back and is no longer valid.  State Commission had refused to stay the order of District forum. This was meant to induce retailers to shift to the new standards for plastic, discourage consumers from using plastic bags, and encourage them to bring their own bags
Advocate for complainant argued that the said notification was not relevant. Even otherwise, the said notification has been repealed long back and is no longer valid.  State Commission had refused to stay the order of District forum. This was meant to induce retailers to shift to the new standards for plastic, discourage consumers from using plastic bags, and encourage them to bring their own bags
Advocate for complainant argued that the said notification was not relevant. Even otherwise, the said notification has been repealed long back and is no longer valid.  State Commission had refused to stay the order of District forum. This was meant to induce retailers to shift to the new standards for plastic, discourage consumers from using plastic bags, and encourage them to bring their own bags
It was a natural outcome that cases started pouring before the consumer commissions in protest. National Commission had 14 revision petitions in hand for disposal coming from various state commissions of the country on this issue. Leading case Big Bazar, Future Retail Ltd, Vs. Ashok Kumar, RP No 975 of 2020, decided on December 22, 2020 is the landmark decision by the apex commission which travelled from the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum II, UT, Chandigarh who had directed Big Bazar to return to the consumer, the cost of the carry bag Rs. 18 per bag, pay Rs100 as compensation, Rs1, 100 as litigation costs and also deposit as punitive damages, Rs. 5,000 in the Legal Aid Account of the Forum. This order was further confirmed by the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, UT, and Chandigarh. The apex consumer Commission also said the award was justified.
National Commission pointed out three basic things-
 
1.      Consumer is imposed additional cost of carry bags at the time he comes for making payment, without prior notice and information. Consumer has no choice of patronizing its retail outlets for purchasing goods at this stage
2.      Commission further observed –
“Such notice or information at the time of making payment not only causes embarrassment and harassment to the consumer and burdens him with additional cost but also affects his unfettered right to make an informed choice of patronizing or not patronizing a particular outlet at the initial stage itself and before making his selection of goods for purchase."
 
3.      It is often not disclosed the specifications and price of the carry bags”
 
Apex commission directed the Chief Executive of the retail chain to immediately issue appropriate instructions to all its outlets accordingly. It is further pointed out
“The necessary notice /signs /announcement /advertisement /warning should be in the place and manner as may enable the consumer to make his informed choice of whether or not to patronize its retail outlets, and whether or not to make his selection of goods for purchase from its retail outlets”.
In the era of online shops this practice of charging for carry bags is going to fall heavy on such stores &shops and not only big bazar but other stores also need to understand the order of National commission.
Interestingly in October 2020,Shri Mumbai Mishtanna Vayasai, an association of 250 sweet sellers and shop owners had filed PIL before the High Court of Mumbai challenging two orders passed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The first order of FSSAI dated February 24 made it mandatory for sweet outlets to display from October 1 the date of manufacturing and best before date of non-packaged/loose sweets on sale and the container/tray holding them.
The FSSAI Further ordered for sweet shops to mentioned instances of stale/expired sweets being sold to customers.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on an association of sweet shop owners for challenging the above orders
There are many instances of this kind all over the country where consumers have come ahead to register their resentment aginst charging for carry bags by the stores 
In Guahati, it was made illegal for shopkeepers or shopping malls to charge extra money from consumers for plastic bags or paper bags or any kind of bags since March 2018.
 
Other incidents and action by consumer welfare authorities
 
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum in Chandigarh imposed penalty of Rs. 13,000 on a leading retail store Lifestyle for charging Rs. 5 from a consumer for paper carry bag and held it deficiency in service and indulgence in unfair trade practices in January 2019.
The consumer welfare associations remarked that the Chandigarh consumer commission’s order applies across the nation.
Madurai District Consumer Forum passed a similar order. Secretary, Consumer Protection Council, Tamil Nadu, said. “Spirit of such orders can be taken as a precedent," The consumer protection council of the state also invited consumers to contact over phone at 93451-01216 if any consumer needs support to approach consumer court.
The Labour Department maintained that the practice followed by retail outlets is out of its purview. But the official also expressed their hands are tied for taking any action -
“We can act only if the outlet makes it mandatory to purchase the carry bag. Since it is optional, we cannot do much with the existing laws."
 
Though public keeps crying foul over shops charging for carry bags but retail stores in cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata etc, continue to charge for carry bags from customers. Shopping malls in every city have failed to learn a lesson from orders of consumer courts shopping malls charges extra for plastic bags, paper bags or any kind of bags. The prices starting from Rs. 5 to Rs. 20 for each bag.
 
There was yet a peculiar case decided on February 21, 2021 from Hyderabad
 
A Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission directed a hypermarket to give carry bags printed with company logo free of charge to customers, refund ₹ 3 which the company had charged for a carry bag printed with its logo, and pay ₹ 15,000 as compensation.
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission – II at Hyderabad bench headed by president Vakkanti Narasimha Rao, was dealing with a complaint filed by Baglekar Akash Kumar (21), a student, against More Megastore Retail Limited in Errumanzil.
The complainant had bought a product on June 1, 2019, and paid ₹118 which included the price of a plastic carry bag with its logo printed on it.  He alleges that by charging ₹3 for the carry bag, the company had used the customer as an ‘advertising agent’, which is an unfair trade practice. He cited a Chandigarh Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission order.
The opposite party contended that it did not force the complainant to buy the carry bag and that no regulation mandates supplying free carry bags to customers. The complainant is free to bring his own carry bag.
It also contended that by providing plastic carry bags of 50 microns thickness, as mandated by Plastic Waste Management Rules, it is neither advertising itself, nor using the consumer as an advertising agent. It further explained that signboards are prominently placed at their stores which encourage customers to bring their own carry bags, purchasing bag is an optional.
Taking all evidence and arguments placed on record, the bench noted that the issue, which is disputed is whether the opposite parties have their customers as advertising agents by selling them carry bags with the company’s logo printed on them without prior notice.Commission noted -
“Disclosing the price of carry bags at the payment counter seems to be undoubtedly an “unfair trade practice” Under Consumer Protection Act The consumer has a right to know that he or she would be charged extra for carry bags, and also the specification and price for them.”
Another three cases from Mohali also attract the attention of stakeholders
 
The complaints were filed by Bhawna Gupta, . Malik & Goyal residents of Mohali, Bhawna, was charged Rs 12 when she purchased clothes & articles worth Rs 1,466 on July 1, 2017. Malik was charged Rs 12 when he purchased articles worth Rs 1,188 on July 1; 2017.Goyal was charged Rs 18 on Mar 31 when he purchased certain articles from the store.
The Big Bazaar authorities filed a written reply stating there was nothing wrong in charging the amount as the same was displayed in the store. The complainant had given their consent to give the carry bag for additional charge.
It has further been pleaded that through advertisement /posters/notices clearly displayed at prominent locations of the store stating that as a part of its responsible & environmentally conscious business policy, consumer are requested to carry their own bags & that a separate charge was to be charged in case the consumer wished to obtain a new carry bag,” the Big Bazaar said.
The forum, however, said, “We aren't impressed with this argument because big stores don't allow customers to carry bags in their hands within their premises, knowing very well that if they are allowed, then customers will not easily give their consent for the purchase of carry bags. The store is, therefore, taking advantage of its dominating position.”
The forum further said the store has miserably failed to produce on record any cogent, convincing & reliable piece of evidence in the shape of any rules/ instructions authorizing it to levy charge additionally for the carry bag from the consumers.
“In this backdrop, charges of such things (carry bags) cann't be separately foisted upon the consumers & the same would amount to unfair trade practice on their part,” the forum observed.
“Besides, if the store claims itself to be responsible & environmentally conscious, it should have given the carry bags to the customers free of cost because in our considered view, the price of the carry bag has generally been included by them in the profit margins of the product(s).” They were then directed to pay up.
The consumer forum has ordered a store in Elante Mall, Industrial Area, Phase I, to pay Rs 18,600 for charging money for carry bags from three different customers.
In each complaint, Big Bazaar has been directed to deposit Rs 5,000 as penalty to the forum for each case & Rs 1,200 as compensation to each complainant
In nut shell situation is that stores are still continuing with the practice of charging for carry bags ignoring the apex commission orders. Its high time that CCPA to take suo moto action on this issue under the new consumer protection act 2019 in order to set the controversy at rest 
Dr Prem Lata
 Consultant (Legal) CCS IIPA
 

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