Consumer Protection Law

1. CONSUMER PROTECTION
LAW
B.B.A/ B.Com LL.B (Honours)
Semester V

2. Learning Outcome
1. To understand about various consumer rights, the laws dealing with such rights
and to act as a responsible consumer in the market
2. To understand the unfair practices in the market and to give proper advice
3. To pursue remedies against defect or deficiency

3. Course Contents
• Module I: Introduction
• Module II: Consumer Protection Laws
• Module III: Defects in Goods
• Module IV: Deficiency in Service
• Module V: Enforcement of Consumer Rights

4. Module 1 - Introduction
• Consumerism - origin and development
• Consumer movement -consumer organizations in India
• Protection of consumer under contract, tort and criminal law
• Consumer protection councils
• Concept of consumer- definition
• Consumers of government service, statutory service and consumers of common property
• Consumer of service and unfair trade practices
• Rights of consumers

5. Consumerism
• Thorstein Veblen, a 19th-century economist and sociologist coined the term
“conspicuous consumption” in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).
• Conspicuous consumption is a means to show one's social status, especially when
publicly displayed goods and services are too expensive for other members of the
same class. This type of consumption is typically associated with the wealthy but
can also apply to any economic class.

6. Consumerism
• The term ''consumerism'' was created by Sidney A. Reeve, an
engineer and an economist, in his book Modern Economic
Tendencies, written in 1921.
• He was referring to the fact that businesses would have to appeal to
the interests and desires of the consumer to sell their goods, which
were rapidly increasing in number.

7. HISTORY OF CONSUMERISM
• Modern-day consumerism emerged in the early 1900s, during the second Industrial Revolution.
• Stores began multiplying and increasing in size
• department stores with their window displays were invented, and
• factories turned out a much larger number of goods than consumers had previously been accustomed to being
available.
• As a result, companies urged their consumers to buy more in what became ''the new economic
gospel of consumption.‘’
• This drove individuals to connect their self-worth to their possessions.

8. History Contd…..
• Throughout the twentieth century, and especially from the 1950s onward, with the invention of
shopping malls, consumerism became increasingly popular among both businesses and consumers.
• The Global Development and Environment Institute theorizes that as people moved from agricultural
areas to larger cities, they had less connection to their new environmental community.
• To forge these connections and gain a new identity, they acquired goods, especially those heavily
advertised to them in various ways.
• As the population began to devalue natural resources, they were more willing to encroach upon the
natural environment to create goods and services, such as oil, residential areas, businesses, etc.

9. Modern Consumerism
• Consumerism has had many effects in the 21st C, including in social and political spheres.
• As consumers' desires have become intertwined with their political and cultural identities, businesses have
altered their products to appeal to this aspect of consumers' priorities.
• The creation of the credit card in the 1950s made consumerist tendencies much more appealing and accessible.
• The 21st C has seen a dramatic increase in ownership of credit cards, and about half of all credit card owners
have consistently unpaid balances.
• Although the Great Recession, which began in 2007, influenced many people to use less credit, today, the
average American household has about seven thousand five hundred dollars in outstanding credit card debt.
• This reality indicates that consumerism has become a virtual necessity.

12. Disadvantages of Consumerism
• Low quality products
• Increasing inequalities
• Moral implications
• Environmental imbalances
• Poor working conditions and terms