Every year, National Consumer Rights Day is celebrated on December 24. In 1986, the Consumer Protection Act was passed and received the assent of the President on December 24. Since then, National Consumer Rights Day is celebrated on this day to commemorate the occasion. The Consumer Protection Act acts to protect consumers from defective goods.

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The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 comes into force from 20 July with its salient features including the establishment of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers; Consumer Protection Councils,
Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions, Mediation, Product Liability, and Punishment for the manufacture or sale of products containing adulterant / spurious goods.

The new act has been introduced after many amendments to protect buyers not only from traditional sellers but also from the new e-commerce retailers/platforms.

CCPA will be empowered to conduct investigations into violations of consumer rights and institute complaints/prosecution, order recalls of unsafe goods and services, order discontinuance of unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements impose penalties on manufacturers/endorsers/publishers of misleading advertisements.

The rules for prevention of unfair trade practices by e-commerce platforms will also be covered under this Act

As per the act every e-commerce entity is required to provide information relating to return, refund, exchange, warranty and guarantee, delivery and shipment, modes of payment, grievance redressal mechanism, payment methods, security of payment methods, charge-back options, etc. including country of origin which are necessary for enabling the consumer to make an informed decision at the pre-purchase stage on its platform.

E-commerce platforms have to acknowledge the receipt of any consumer complaint within forty-eight hours and redress the complaint within one month from the date of receipt under this Act

The New Act introduces the concept of product liability and brings within its scope, the product manufacturer, product service provider and product seller, for any claim for compensation.

It empowers the State and District Commissions to review their own orders, enabling a consumer to file complaints electronically and file complaints in consumer Commissions that have jurisdiction over the place of his residence, videoconferencing for hearing and deemed admissibility of complaints if the question of admissibility is not decided within the specified period of 21 days.

An Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanism of Mediation has been provided in the new Act. This will simplify the adjudication process. There will be no appeal against settlement through mediation.

The Act provides for punishment by a competent court for the manufacture or sale of adulterant/spurious goods. The court may, in case of the first conviction, suspend any license issued to the person for a period of up to two years, and in case of a second or subsequent conviction, cancel the license.