Consumer rights are the rights given to a “consumer” to protect him/her from being cheated by salesman/manufacturer. Consumer protection laws are designed to ensure fair trade competition and the free flow of truthful information in the marketplace.
The eight consumer rights are:
The right to satisfaction of basic needs – to have access to basic, essential goods and services such as adequate food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, public utilities, water and sanitation.
The right to safety – to be protected against products, production processes and services that are hazardous to health or life.
The right to be informed – to be given the facts needed to make an informed choice, and to be protected against dishonest or misleading advertising and labelling.
The right to choose – to be able to select from a range of products and services, offered at competitive prices with an assurance of satisfactory quality.
The right to be heard – to have consumer interests represented in the making and execution of government policy, and in the development of products and services.
The right to redress – to receive a fair settlement of just claims, including compensation for misrepresentation, shoddy goods or unsatisfactory services.
The right to consumer education – to acquire knowledge and skills needed to make informed, confident choices about goods and services, while being aware of basic consumer rights and responsibilities and how to act on them.
The right to a healthy environment – to live and work in an environment that is non-threatening to the well-being of present and future generation.
Consumer protection laws exist to prevent dangerous or unethical business practices, such as false advertising or faulty products. For most consumer goods, the Federal Trade Commission regulates warranties and service contracts. In finance, consumer protection laws seek to prevent predatory lending, housing discrimination, securities fraud, privacy violations, and other unethical practices. Thanks to the Internet and telemarketing, scams and fraud are still common, since these operators can be hard to track down. To protect your private information, never give out social security, credit card, or bank account numbers over the phone. Check your billing statements and credit history regularly for fraudulent purchases.
Consumer protection law or consumer law is considered as an area of law that regulates private law relationships between individual consumers and the businesses that sell those goods and services. Consumer protection covers a wide range of topics, including but not necessarily limited to product liability, privacy rights, unfair business practices, fraud, misrepresentation, and other consumers/business interactions. It is a way of preventing frauds and scams from service and sales contracts, eligible fraud, bill collector regulation, pricing, utility turnoffs, consolidation, personal loans that may lead to bankruptcy. There have been some arguments that consumer law is also a better way to engage in large-scale redistribution than tax law because it does not necessitate legislation and can be more efficient, given the complexities of tax law.
On being cheated, consumers complained to the concerned shopkeeper and asked him for replacement of the item However, it was surprising to note that a large number of consumers “just grumbled” and “keep quiet”. They took care not to go to the same shop again and even warned their friends and neighbor’s about it Consumers from the lower income and the uneducated ones blamed their fate’ and did nothing. Consumers from the upper and middle class did not have the time to pursue such cases; moreover, according to them, nobody listened to complaints. They felt that consumers are helpless and there was no use complaining, it would be a waste of time and energy.
Although consumers are ignorant of the government’s efforts for consumer protection, they want to learn; they requested that they be given a copy of all the Acts pertaining to consumer protection. Others wanted the researcher to give them a talk about the provisions in these Acts and penalties thereof.
In our day to day life we become consumer through buying goods or services. In the era of science and technology globalization, urbanization and modernization developed rapidly, which resulted into vast competition in market. The traditional view of buying goods and particular services changed and many products, services, and professions came under widened scope of consumer law.
As a consumer we have much concern about the money, choice, health and safety of the life. Market is always dominated by the sellers and their attitude towards consumer as weaker section. In last few years’ market is found to be influenced by the false, misleading advertisements or representations, bargaining, offering gifts, prizes, contests and hoardings attracting public for product or services.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.
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We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge