CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT AND UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES 

What is unfair is a question raised time and again by eminent people from the society as and when things went wrong .In the eyes of law ,what ever is not fair is unfair.This word in legal field was used for monopolies by big business houses and indulging into unfair means for promotion of their own business at the cost of  others .This phrase was a part of Monopolies restricted trade practices but after amendment 2002 to the consumer protection act,it has taken an elaborated shape and meaning providing more teeth to this welfare act .During the last decade ,business in India had touched the horizon and marketing and business expantion strategies found innovative methods to attact the consumers at large and one of the means adopted was advertisements through media ,press etc .It was observed that such advertisements were being  displayed in such a manner that public was being mislead and consumer felt looted and found himself empty handed inspite of the fact he was promised to get gift if made purchases of certain amount,shall be sent air tickets if becomes subscriber of a magazine or shall be prize winner in the draw and practically none of the promises were fulfilled at the end of the day. Not only that he was shown word ‘upto’ written in small fine print what he understood was 50% In discount sale also it was found the original cost was 150/- which was shown 250/- and than reduced to 50% discount with cost of Rs 125/- making them believe they are getting huge rebate .This was the scenario of the market when parliament amended the act by incuding the clause unfair trade practices in the definition part of section 2 of the act .Hence forth any unfair means adopted by the manufacturers ,traders and service providers became the subject of consumer protection act

One more glaring thing was observed during the past few years was the  commercialization of education to the extend of exploitation of students by educational institutes which mushroomed day in and day out without any affiliation or recognition by any university .They are making huge claims through alluring advertisement in the papers about their services and facilities and made the student part with fee for the full course of three to five years and then vanished away or close the institute.Consumers felt looted left with no option after wasting their valuable time and money and then consumer courts came to their rescue with the provision of unfair trade practices as a tool to the consumer for hauling up such institutes.

 Service providers ,servant providers ,marriage bureos ,event managers  have become part of our  daily life style and we depend upon them for every small thing .No one has time to hunt for these facilities and yes services are offered at your door step .But what if you do not get the required attention inspite of payment in full and final .One becomes more handicapped after making payment  

DR PREM LATA

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