What can you actually demand as a consumer in India?

A damaged product and an unresponsive customer-service chatbot do not necessarily end a consumer's options. In today's 'YOUR INDIA', Santosh Nair looks at the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, consumer commissions, product liability and the powers of the CCPA.

A man orders a mattress online. It arrives damaged, the seller stops responding to messages, and the company’s app offers no way to escalate beyond a generic chatbot that keeps repeating the same three unhelpful replies. He assumes there is nothing more he can do besides accepting the loss and warning friends about the brand. What he likely does not know is that Indian law gives him a specific, enforceable path forward, one built for exactly this kind of frustration.

India’s Consumer Protection Act, 2019, replaced an older 1986 law that had not kept pace with how Indians actually shop today, through apps, marketplaces, and sellers based in cities the buyer has never visited. The new law was written with online commerce explicitly in mind, and it changed several things that matter directly to an ordinary buyer.

Read more: What happens the moment you walk into a police station?

Can you file a consumer complaint from your own city?

The most practical change may be the simplest one. Under the earlier law, a consumer generally had to file a complaint in the city where the seller was located. Under the 2019 Act, a complaint can be filed from the consumer’s own place of residence........

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