24 December: National Consumer Day

Every year 24 December is observed as National Consumer Day, to highlight the importance of consumer movement as well as the need to make every consumer more aware of their rights and responsibilities. Theme of National Consumer Day 2019 is- ‘Alternate Consumer Grievance/Dispute Redressal’.

About National Consumer Day

Why 24 December? It was on this day, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 had received the assent of the president and was enacted. The enactment of this Act is considered as a historic milestone in India’s consumer movement.

Objective: To provide consumers with effective safeguards against different types of exploitation like defective goods, deficiency in services and unfair trade practices.

Key Highlights

In 2019, Parliament gave the nod to replace decades old Consumer Protection Act, 1986 by passing landmark Consumer Protection Bill, 2019, which aims to protect rights of consumers by establishing authorities for effective and timely administration/ settlement of consumers dispute.

Upon receiving Presidential assent, the bill became the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 which entails setting up of a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce rights of consumers as a class. CCPA is responsible for making interventions for preventing consumer detriment arising from unfair trade practices as well as it can also initiate class action, including enforcing return, recall and refund of products.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2019