Stuti Sharma 30

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Consumer
Awareness
 INDEX

• Introduction
• Objective
• Meaning of consumer awareness
• Forms of consumer exploitation
• Factors causing consumer exploitation
• Rights and duties of a consumer
• Measures for consumer protection
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

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 Introduction

» Consumer awareness is the knowledge that

a consumer should have about his/her legal rights and
duties.
» It is a must for a consumer to follow these rights. It is
implemented for the protection of the consumer, so
that the consumer is not exploited by the seller of the
products.
» Consumer awareness is important so that buyer can
take the right decision and make the right choice.

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Objective
The objective of this project is to assess the people of different class in
the society about different aspects of consumer awareness viz., price
and quality of products used by them, about Fair Price Shop,
standardization of products, about Consumer Forum, about
their Rights and Duties etc.
 Meaning Of Consumer Awareness

» Consumer awareness means being conscious of having

knowledge about the various consumer production
laws, redress mechanism and the consumer rights
which include right to protection of health and safety
from goods and services that the consumer buy, right
to be informed about the quality, price, potency, purity
and standard of good, right to choose the best from a
variety of others, right to get representation if there is
any grievance or suggestion, and right to seek redress
against unfair trade practice or unscrupulous
exploitation.
» The Consumer Protection Act was enacted in 1986 to
protect the consumers from unfair trade practices.
There are certain rights provided to every consumer by
the Consumer Protection Act. Every consumer must be
aware of the consumer rights and responsibilities.

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 Forms Of Consumer Exploitation

» Artificial scarcity or shortage

» False or incomplete information
» Adulteration and impurities
» Lack of safety devices
» Unsatisfactory after-sale service
» Underweight and under measurement
» High Prices
» Substandard quality
» Rough behaviour
» Duplicity

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 Forms Of Consumer Exploitation

» Artificial scarcity » False or » Adulteration and » Lack of safety » Unsatisfactory

or shortage: To incomplete impurities: Adulter devices: Electronic after-sale
earn more profits information: Seller ation is done in the goods produced service: Many
sellers create s sometimes costly items as locally lack the suppliers do not
artificial scarcity by mislead people by in oil, ghee, milk, required inbuilt provide
hoarding and giving wrong spices etc. to earn safeguards, which satisfactory after-
selling the same at information about higher profits. This may cause sale service in case
higher price. the products, price, affects accidents. of expensive
quality, safety, consumer’s health electronic
expiry date , and their money equipments ,
maintenance costs goes waste home appliances
etc. and cars etc.

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 » High » Substandard » Rough » Duplicity: Fake and
• Underweight and quality: Selling behaviour: Consum duplicate items are
under Prices: Sometimes
sellers charge defective home ers are often sold in the name of
measurement: The appliances and harassed in matters genuine goods
goods sold in the higher than the
MRP. expired medicines like LPG
market are sometimes are its examples. and telephone
not measured or connections and in
weighted correctly. getting licensed
items.

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 Factors Causing Consumer
Exploitation

» Lack of knowledge
» Consumer's indifference towards the market
» Tele Marketing
» Limited Information
» Monopoly
» Illiteracy and Feeling of satisfaction

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 Factors Causing Consumer Exploitation
» Consumer's indifference towards
the market: There is a large group
of such consumers who behave
indifferently regarding purchasing.
There are some consumers who
think as – what to do, every thing is
alright, leave it , why to take cash
memo, whatever goods the
shopkeeper gives is good, things
should be cheap, good and durable
, What is the need of the
standardization marks like ISI and
AGMARK etc. The producers take
full advantage of this indifferent
behaviour of consumers and
succeed in exploiting them
» Lack of knowledge: The main
reason for exploitation of
consumers is lack of knowledge.
Several consumers do not have the
knowledge about the price, quality,
services related commodities.
Therefore, consumers simply trust
the facts told to them by the sellers
and purchase goods, thus become
trapped and are exploited.
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» Tele Marketing : Today in the age
of computers, tele- marketing and
e-commerce have become very
popular. You also must have seen
the advertisement on T.V. The
information about the goods and
the prices is also given in the
advertisement. The consumer can
send the required money and get
the commodity through parcel. But
very often the consumers feel
cheated by this deal. One orders
for costly products on being
influenced, but he does not get the
due benefit from that good.
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 Factors Causing Consumer Exploitation
» Limited Information: In this age of
globalization there are several
types of products in the market.
Producer is free to produce. There
is no fixed law for quality and rate.
There is lack of knowledge about
several aspects of goods like rte,
quality, rules for usage, rules for
selling etc. Therefore a consumer
makes wrong choice and suffers
financial loss .
» Monopoly : Monopoly means the
right on the production and
distribution of a commodity of a
producer or a group of producers.
In the state of monopoly producers
have arbitrary behavior regarding
the prices and the quality and
availability of the goods. As a
result, producers succeeded in
exploiting consumers .
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» Illiteracy and Feeling of
satisfaction: When the consumers
are uneducated, the sellers cheat
them very easily. The shopkeeper
tells the resembling words as of
branded and sells the goods of
poor quality . For example Godraj is
written instead of Godrej, the local
producers sell it in the price of
Godrej. Sometimes consumers are
placid. Consumers think it was a
loss, let it be or it was their fate,
now who will fight etc. This
thinking also makes consumers
prey of exploitation. The sellers
know consumer's mentality and
seller exploit consumer freely .
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Rights And Duties
Of A Consumer

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 Rights Of A Consumer
The Consumer Protection Act protects only the consumers. So, if a person who is not a
consumer and uses goods for commercial purposes files a grievance ,the grievance will not
be entertained by the consumer redressal commissions.
» Right to consumer education and to update ourselves with all the new schemes launched by the government.
» Right to be heard in the consumer forum.
» Right to be protected and seek redressal against traders using unfair means and unfair practices. For instance, we all
hear about e-portals scamming and looting people of the heard earned money on the false pretext of giving them a
job with a handsome pay. The people who availed their services became consumers and since there was a deficiency
in the service the consumers had the right to approach consumer forums for redressal.
» Right to have access to a variety of goods at fair prices.
» Right to be safe from hazardous goods.

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 Duties Of A Consumer

Every right has a corresponding duty, the right of an individual is the duty of another.
Duties of consumers are very essential to be followed as it saves one from further issues.
» Duty of consumer to pay for the services or goods purchased or used. However, if a client decides not to pay for the
services, here is what u can do.
» Duty of consumer to check weights, balances, prices etc. and read the labels carefully.
» To update oneself about the various schemes of consumer protection.
» Duty not to fall in the trap of misleading information and advertisements.
» Not to buy goods from black markets.
» To be an ethical consumer and procure the bills, receipts etc. for the good and services purchased. If a consumer fails
to take them then he/she might find it difficult to file a complaint and prove the defect in the good.
» Duty to gain knowledge about consumer rights and duties and to spread awareness about the same.
» Duty to file a complaint in case there is a defect in the good or service so purchased.

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 Measures For
Consumer
Awareness

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 Measures For Consumer Awareness
» In India, consumer protection is specified in The Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Under this law, Separate Consumer
Dispute Redress Forums have been set up throughout India in each and every district in which a consumer can file his
complaint on a simple paper with nominal court fees and his complaint will be decided by the Presiding Officer of the
District Level. The complaint can be filed by both the consumer of a goods as well as of the services. An appeal could
be filed to the State Consumer Disputes Redress Commissions and after that to the National Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission (NCDRC). The procedures in these tribunals are relatively less formal and more people friendly
and they also take less time to decide upon a consumer dispute when compared to the years-long time taken by the
traditional Indian judiciary. In recent years, many effective judgments have been passed by some state and National
Consumer Forums.
» Indian Contract Act, 1872 lays down the conditions in which promises made by parties to a contract will be legally
binding on each other. It also lays down the remedies available to aggregate party if the other party fails to honor his
promise.
» The Sale of Goods Act of 1930 act provides some safeguards to buyers of goods if goods purchased do not fulfill the
express or implied conditions and warranties.
» The Agriculture Produce Act of 1937 act provides grade standards for agricultural commodities and livestock products.
It specifies the conditions which govern the use of standards and lays down the procedure for grading, marking and
packaging of agricultural produce. The quality mark provided under the act is known as AGMARK-Agricultural
Marketing.
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 Conclusion

» To conclude, people are concerned abo

ut different aspects of
consumer awareness i.e. their rights
and duties, certified products, MRP,
date of manufacturing and expiry of th
e products they used, Consumer Courts
etc as far as urban area is concerned.

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 researchgate.net
en.wikipedia.org
lawctopus.com
www.toppr.com
Brainly.in

Bibliography
Thank You
Stuti Sharma
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