How Can We Protect Our Consumer Rights?

 

Every consumer has the right to quality, safe and pure products and services in exchange for money. Consumer rights are the most talked and important issue of the present time. A consumer is a person who buys and consumes goods or services according to his personal preferences or needs. That is, a person or group of individuals who buys a product or service from a seller and exhausts the utility of that product or service is called a consumer.

In order for citizens to live well in a country, the state guarantees certain rights to the citizens--which are called civil rights. And consumer rights are one of these civil rights. 15th March is the World Consumer Rights Day. This day has been celebrated all over the world since 1983. The theme for World Consumer Rights Day 2024 is “Fair and responsible AI for consumers”.

For the safety of life, a consumer has the right to receive his promised product or service in the right, accurate, right size and in the right sense. The consumer has the right to receive his desire product or service in exchange for a fixed price. Therefore, a consumer has the right to know about the product components, expiry date, selling price, product quality, product effectiveness. And naturally a seller is obliged to answer these questions. There are 8 consumer rights recognized by the United Nations. These are- The right to satisfaction of basic needs, The right to safety, The right to be informed, The right to choose, The right to be heard, The right to redress, The right to consumer education, The right to a healthy environment

Moreover, the consumer has the right to receive compensation for any damage caused by the use of any product or service. Only victims can tell how harmful an expired product or medicine is to life. Many people die prematurely as a result of taking these expired products or medicines. We often see scenes of weight manipulation, manipulation of weighting instruments, manipulation of measuring instruments. Manufacturers are constantly cheating the consumer by not writing the product ingredients, sale price, expiration date, product effectiveness on the product which is a punishable offense. According to one statistic, more than five crore people in Bangladesh are currently suffering from food poisoning. 60% of vegetables in the capital Dhaka contain toxic chemicals. Which is a threat to our lives.

To protect consumers from being deceived, the government of Bangladesh enacted the much-awaited law "Consumers' Right Protection Act-2009" in 2009. As a result of enactment of this law, if a consumer is deceived in any matter including weight, quantity, selling price, material, quality of the product, expiry date, effectiveness of the product in the purchase of goods or services, there is an opportunity to get redressal. But the saddest thing is the fact that most people in Bangladesh are not aware of the fact that there is an important consumer law in the country. As a result, consumers are constantly being deceived.

Online shopping is becoming popular in Bangladesh like other countries of the world.

Consumers are being deceived in various ways by buying products with glamorous advertisements and lucrative offers in online. In particular, not delivering the desired product as per the demand and even if it does, the supply of low quality products is now happening all the time.

Salman is a student of the Department of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. While scrolling through the newsfeed on Facebook, an advertisement for a shirt on an e-commerce site suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. The name of the site is 'UR Fashion'. He scrolls the site for a while and ordered a shirt with black steps. The price of the shirt is 1100 TK. According to their terms, the total money of this product was paid through bKash. Three days later, the product arrived at his courier address. With a lot of excitement in mind, Salman went to Feni courier service station-- SA Paribahan to bring his desire product. He is very happy to receive the ordered shirt. But he is disappointed when he opens the packet. 

The shirt that he ordered is not there. When the matter was brought to the notice of the person working in the courier service, he said that their job was to deliver the goods. They are not responsible for whether the product is genuine or counterfeit. Then Salman called the company from which he bought the product. At first the authority did not receive a call from his number. Later, when he tells about it by calling from another number, they say that they will not change the product and will not return the money. Even after talking for a long time, the issue was not solved. On the contrary, the authority of 'UR fashion' cut him off by using vulgar language.

Saiful Islam is another such victim at the same time in that day. He also saw an advertisement on a Facebook page and ordered 'iPhone-X' from an e-commerce site. Although he was supposed to get the product in two days, Saiful Islam finally got the product in seven days by calling again and again. The money has already been paid through bKash. Mr. Saiful came to the courier and opened the packet. He opened the packet and saw the second handset of Nokia-1100 model instead of iPhone-X. Where is the iPhone-X and where is the Nokia-1100! He is about being senseless. After a while, when he regained sense, he called the number from the site where he had ordered the iPhone and it was seen that their number was blocked.

If someone deceived by purchasing goods, there is an opportunity to get redressal by filing a complaint under the Consumers' Right Protection Act-2009. The Consumers' Right Protection Act- 2009 has a total of 82 sections. There are also several subsections. Here are some notable sections of the Consumers' Right Protection Act. According to Section 28, the deceived consumer can avail the assistance of law enforcement agencies and other authorities. According to section 29, if any goods are proved to be particularly harmful to human health, the Government, on recommendation of the Director General, may, by notification in the official Gazette, issue direction for stopping the production, import, marketing, sale, display for sale, distribution, transportation for commercial purpose or commercial use of those goods completely all over the country or in any specific area, or for regulating or conducting those activities on such terms and conditions as may be specified in the notification.

According to section 37, if any person violates any obligation, imposed by any Act or rules, of selling any goods within cover and inscribing weight, amount, ingredients, instructions for use, maximum, retail; price, date of manufacture, date of packaging and date of expiry of that goods on the label, he will be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 year, or with fine not exceeding Taka 50 thousands, or with both.

According to section 38, if any person violates any obligation, imposed by any Act or rules, of displaying the price-list of goods by affixing it at a conspicuous place of his shop or organization, he will be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 year, or with fine not exceeding Taka 50 thousands, or with both. According to section 40, if any person sells or offers to sell any goods, medicine or service at a price higher than the price fixed under any Act or rules, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 year, or with fine not exceeding Taka 50 thousands, or with both.

According to section 41, if any person knowingly sells or offers to sell any adulterated goods or medicine, he will be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years, or with fine not exceeding Taka 2 lakhs, or with both. According to section 42, if any person mixes with foodstuff any ingredient which is injurious to human life or health and the mixing of which with foodstuff is prohibited by any Act or rules, he will be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years, or with fine not exceeding Taka 2 lakhs, or with both. According to section 43, if any person manufactures or processes any goods in a process which is injurious to human life or health and prohibited under any Act or rules, he will be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years, or with fine not exceeding Taka 1 lakh, or with both.

According to section 44, if

any person deceives any buyer by any false or untrue advertisement for the purpose of selling any goods or service, he will be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 year, or with fine not exceeding Taka 2 lakhs, or with both.

The Consumers' Right Protection Act-2009 provides for jail-fines for each of the offenses in question and is also imposing jail-fines. But the jail-fines that imposed are negligible compared to the crime. It is also a fact that many retailers do not even know that it is a punishable offense not to write the product material, sale price, expiry date, product effectiveness, product quality etc. on the product.

It is very easy to file a complaint under the Consumers' Right Protection Act if you have been deceived into buying a product or service. Complaints can be made easily with the required information through the ‘Vokta Odhikar O Obhijog Kendra’ apps stored in the Google Play Store. Moreover, complaints can also be lodged by calling 01777753668 and 031-741212. After the investigation, if the allegation is proved to be true, 25% of the amount of the fine will be paid to the complaining consumer. However, the condition is that the complaint must be filed within 30 days of the purchase of the product or service.

If someone deceived by purchasing goods, there is an opportunity to get redressal by filing a complaint under the Consumers' Right Protection Act-2009. But the saddest thing is that most of the people in our country are not aware of the fact that there is an important law in the country called Consumers' Right Protection Act. But what is the reason behind this? The main reason is the lack of publicity for this law. So, a large part of the country's people do not know about this law.

Therefore, effective measures have to be taken to increase the publicity of this law in the public interest. People need to be informed about this law, they need to be made aware about the purchase of goods. Above all, we all need to be aware of protecting consumer rights. With the joint efforts of all, it is possible to build a Bangladesh free of adulterated products.

 
Emran Emon is a researcher,
journalist and columnist.