Chapter-4

To evaluate the measure for enforcement of consumer rights

4:1. Introduction
In Bangladesh, the people who have to buy the various commodities on sale in the
market for their consumption should, at least, according to definition, be called
consumers. However, when it comes to the rights that define a consumer in modern
parlance, one is really at a loss about how to define the consuming public of
Bangladesh. For compared to societies where rights of the consumer folk are duly
protected, in Bangladesh they are the neglected lot. In the prevailing situation, the
traders, whether retailers or wholesalers exercise and enjoy all the powers, often to
the chagrin of the consumers. Such a state of affairs has been going on for too long
in Bangladesh. As a consequence, a kind of imbalance has been created in society
so much so that the consumer public has been left entirely to the whims and
caprices of a section of unscrupulous traders.

4:2. How is a consumer protected

To protect consumer rights, the best possible solution is that the consumers must
be aware of their rights, work together with consumer organizations, assert against
exploitation and seek redress for their grievances. A kind of self-vaccinating
culture has to be developed to produce the best harvest from the Consumer Rights
Protection Act (CRPA),

In our country, consumer awareness is low due to the apathy and lack of education
among the masses. The efforts to educate them about their rights, quality concerns,
price mechanisms, access to justice etc are limited due to varied reasons. The
producers of goods and services providers are reluctant to give due consideration
to the interest of consumers.
Why consumer protection is necessary

The people who dominate the market or run businesses are always in a more
advantageous position than the Customers. The customers are often put into a
disadvantaged and unequal bargaining situation. Therefore, consumers need to be
protected.

Honesty should govern competitive business enterprises and the maxim buyer be
aware should not be relied upon to reward fraudulent and deceptive businesses.

The concept of consumer rights cannot be separated from the human rights
perspective.

Consumer rights are regarded as a facet of social justice.

Ralph Nader, pioneer of the American consumer movement said, consumers are
the vital force of the economy.

EIGHT LEGITIMATE RIGHTS OF THE CONSUMERS

1. Right to Satisfaction of Basic needs: Fundamental right according to the

Constitution of Bangladesh to have access to food, clothing, education, healthcare,
shelter.

2. Right to Safety: protection from hazardous and unsafe products and services.

3. Right to Information: information about the quality, quantity, potency, purity,

standard and price of products and services.

4. Right to Choose: Availability of selection of goods and services from their

varieties to justify the quality, cost, preference.

5. Right to be Heard: raise unhappiness against consumer malpractice; or right to

be represented by consumer organizations.

6. Right to Redress: This is the crux of consumer rights. The consumer is entitled
to have legal remedy, either monetary or exchange, in case of violation of
consumer rights.
7. Right to Consumer Education: to have access to programs and information that
helps the consumer to make a better and informed buying decision.

8. Right to Healthy Environment: to live and work in an environment that does not
affect consumers welfare and health.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CONSUMER

Use the product safely, following all safety instructions and remaining alert for
future precautions.

Choose vigilantly at a fair price.

Make the effort to seek compensation for a wrong.

Make choices that minimize the environmental impact of your purchase on

others.

Consume in a sustainable manner, so as not to preventothers from meeting their

own needs.

4:3. Parties to Consumer Protection

We have realised the need for steps to protect consumer interest. The question is,
who will take those steps? Can consumers alone do it? Or, should we depend on
the government? Can businessmen do anything? Actually, for effective consumer
protection, it is essential that all the three parties must be involved, that is,

(a) Consumers; (b) Businessmen; and (c) Government. Let us consider what each
of the parties can do:

(a) We shall agree that self-help is the best help. So consumers should, as far as
possible, take care of their own interest and protect themselves from market
malpractices. For this purpose, it is necessary that they should try to know about
their rights and exercise them. They Business Studies should not depend on the
good sense of businessmen. Consumers have a right to education and also a right
to be heard. They should attend training programmes for consumers arranged by
local consumer associations or by their own association and invite consumer
activists to speak to them on consumer rights and remedies available under the law
to protect them.

(b) As regards businessmen, it is expected that producers, distributors, dealers,

wholesalers as well as retailers should pay due regard to consumer rights in their
own interest. They should ensure supply of quality goods and services at
reasonable prices. To prevent unfair practices, associations of traders, chambers
of commerce and industry, and manufacturers associations should entertain
consumer complaints against their members and take proper action against those
guilty of malpractice.

(c) For Government, consumer protection is a responsibility to be undertaken in the

general interest of society. Enforcement of various laws and amending existing
laws to protect consumer interests are required to be taken up in the light of
viewpoints of consumer associations. Representations of consumer groups should
also be associated with the policymaking bodies set up by government at the centre
and the states. A number of measures have been taken by Government from time
to time.

4:4 The laws having consumer protection implication

Consumer protection law or consumer law is considered an area of law that
regulates private law relationships between individual consumers and the
businesses that sell those goods and services. Consumer protection covers a wide
range of topics, including but not necessarily limited to product liability, privacy
rights, unfair business practices, fraud, misrepresentation, and other
consumer/business interactions.

Consumer protection laws deal with a wide range of issues including credit repair,
debt repair, product safety, service and sales contracts, bill collector regulation,
pricing, utility turnoffs, consolidation, personal loans that may lead to bankruptcy.

In the Bangladesh context, the government should reactivate the Trading

Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) and create a consumers corporation for public
distribution system. The two bodies can go for local purchase or imports for the
purpose. The standards and testing institution needs to be strengthened to oversee
product quality. It is also the responsibility of the government to interact with
International Organization for Standardization (ISO), FAO and WHO for updating
food standards.

Mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer contracts have to be incorporated to

help the consumer avoid the hassle of litigation.

The government should make and update the rules for businesses to disclose
detailed information about products-particularly in areas where safety or public
health is an issue such as food. Consumer protection is linked to the idea of
consumer rights, and to the formation of consumer organizations which help
consumers make better choices in the marketplace.

The UN guidelines for consumer protection are meant to achieve the following
objectives:

a. To assist countries in achieving or maintaining adequate protection for their

population as consumers;

b. To facilitate production and distribution patterns responsive to the needs and

desires of consumers;

c. To encourage high levels of ethical conduct for those engaged in the production
and distribution of goods and services to consumers;

d. To assist countries in curbing abusive business practices by all enterprises at the

national and international levels which adversely affect consumers;

e. To facilitate the development of independent consumer groups;

f. To further international cooperation in the field of consumer protection; and

g. To encourage the development of market conditions which provide consumers
with greater choice at lower prices.

The UN emphasizes on protection of consumers by facilitating production and

distribution, encouraging ethical conduct in production and distribution, facilitating
and encouraging formation of consumer groups, international co-operation and
development of market condition for greater choice of lower prices.

The government should promote implementation of standards at the national and

international levels for the safety and quality of goods and services. National
standards and regulations for product safety and quality should be reviewed from
time to time, in order to ensure that they conform, where possible, to generally
accepted international standards.

The government should ensure the availability of facilities to test and certify the
safety, quality and performance of essential consumer goods and services.

Recently Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009 has been enacted in Bangladesh
stipulates the establishment of a Central Consumer Protection Council. It requires
the government to establish a directorate of consumer right protection to oversee
and co-ordinate the consumer protection activities. The consumer protection law
made Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act No. V of 1898), Pure Food
Ordinance, 1959 and Special Powers Act, 1974, relevant to defining adulteration
and hoarding. It allows 90 days to settle a case. The Mobile Court Act has
empowered the authorities to issue warrant of search and arrest the erring sellers.

The Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009, a comprehensive law, makes the
existing laws relevant for the country's market economy. It provides for addressing
problems and bringing about discipline the market. The seven-chapter law provides
for the establishment of a National Consumer Right Protection Council. The law
clearly defines consumer offences and stipulates the punishments. But it does not
provide for the establishment of separate tribunals or courts to try consumer
offences as is the case in some other countries. The courts of first class magistrates
or the metropolitan magistrates are empowered to try consumer offences. The law
does not enable an aggrieved consumer or a consumers association to go directly to
such courts against erring sellers. The aggrieved consumers in Bangladesh can
only lodge a complaint to the director general of the consumer directorate within
30 days and then must wait for the directorate to take further action, if required.
Obviously, the law leaves the decision to the directorate whether or not to take
lodge a complaint against the alleged offenders.

The Consumer Protection Act provides an alternative and inexpensive remedy by

way of civil suits. A consumer is not required to pay any court fees or even process
fee. Proceedings would be summary in nature and the law stipulates relief to the
parties in 90 days. A consumer, not satisfied with the decision of a magistrates
court, can go to district court and subsequently the High Court as per civil court
procedure.

It allows an aggrieved consumer to move the civil court for claiming 'monetary
compensation,' which could be five times more than the economic harm suffered.
But an aggrieved consumer can only seek the compensation only after the
consumer directorate initiates the criminal procedure in the magistrates' courts.
Earlier, aggrieved consumers could directly file damage suits claiming
compensations under common law of tort and the much-talked Special Power Act
1974. After enactment of the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009, the aggrieved
consumers would need to wait for the consumer directorate to initiate the criminal
procedure before they (the consumer) can move the civil court for the monetary
compensation. This provides an advantage to the erring sellers and also possibly
creates a scope for misuse of the law.

The law lacks the provision to protect the investor in the share market where the
small investors suffer quite often due to willful and non-willful negligence of stock
exchange and the Security Exchange Commission (SEC). The non-banking finance
companies charge very high cost of service and high rate of interest from the
investors without intervention from the regulators.

Also buyers from the ever growing big companies in housing and mobile phone
service operators need special protection.

There should be alternate dispute resolution (ADR) for quick disposal of small
issues. Separate ombudsmen can do it in areas like those of banking, utilities and
other disputes through conciliation and arbitration.

Bangladesh's public sector bodies, selling products and services, should be made
accountable under the consumer's protection law.

A competition law should be enacted immediately to safeguard the consumers by

promoting competition in the market.

NGO and individuals consumer activism and the local government have roles to
play to protect the consumer.

Awareness helps a consumer about his or her legal rights and responsibilities.
Unless the law is enforced, there can be no protection of the consumer. It is the
responsibility of the government to ensure that the consumer is not exploited by the
seller. It is said that consumer is king, but the consumers are real kings if they are
empowered with market information, knowledge of their right, responsibility and
privileges and in a competitive market, regulated by the government.

There is a demand for amending the consumer protection law to allow the
consumers the right to file case directly to the court. No other country denies the
consumer this right. Denial of this right to the consumer can only create mis-trust,
leading to an unhealthy market. The UN Charter and Consumers International
promote the right to satisfaction of basic needs, the right to redress, the right to
education, and the right to a healthy environment for optimum benefit of the
consumers.

The awareness of consumers and sellers is more important than the right of
litigation. There should be a mandatory provision in the consumers protection law
to give the responsibility to create the awareness to the proposed National
Consumer Right Protection Council and National Consumer Right Protection
Directorate.

An overview of the Bangladeshi Laws on the promotion and Protection of

consumer rights

The general protection of the consumers may be derived from principles

enunciated in Articles- 15x and 18xi of the Constitution. This Articles, though non-
justifiable in its nature, indicates the importance attributed to the nutritional status
of the people and basic principles and measures for protecting consumers from
products, processes and services, which can endanger their health and safety. This
constitutional safeguard has been strengthened through promulgation of related
laws and regulations so that consumption be proper and appropriate.

Moreover, in the Constitution of Bangladesh some justifiable fundamental rights

are incorporated which are connected with the rights of the consumers. As for
examples, Article 32 provides that no person shall be deprived of life save in
accordance with law; Article 38 provides that every citizen shall have the right to
form associations or unions, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law
in the interests of morality or public order; Article 40 provides that subject to any
restrictions imposed by law, every citizen shall have the right to enter upon any
lawful profession or occupation, and to conduct any lawful trade or business.
These fundamental rights interalia are enforceable by the Supreme Court of
Bangladesh in accordance with Article 102 read with Article 44 of the
Constitution.

The Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009 provided both civil and criminal
remedies. A consumer is entitled to lodge complain to the Consumer Rights
Protection Department for any violation of the Act. The DCs of different districts
can exercise the same power as given to the department. A consumer although
barred from filing a direct complains to the police station under the Consumer
Rights Protection Act, 2009 can file a case to the Police station under other Laws.
The Bangladeshi laws provides for the establishments of different organizations to
protect the rights of the consumers including various Courts or Tribunals such as-

(i) Consumer Rights Protection Department; (ii) National Consumer Rights

Protection Council; (iii) Special Tribunal; (iv) Mobile Court (can work/ function
under various Laws; It may be constituted by a special executive order); (v) Drug
Court; (vi) Food Special Court; (vii) Ordinary Criminal Courts; (viii) Ordinary
Civil Courts; (ix) Marine Courts; (x) BSTI; (xi) Claims Tribunal etc.

4:5. Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB)

Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), is a nongovernment, non-political
and non-profit voluntary organization. It was established in February 1978. The
association plays a vital role in promoting and protecting consumer rights in
Bangladesh. Its main goal is to protect the rights and interests of consumers as well
as to educate them on about their rights and responsibilities in order to be a wise
consumer. CAB provides legal assistance and advice to consumers whose rights
have been violated. In essence, CAB is working towards ensuring consumers and
businessmen will have a safe, fair and competitive marketplace.

The aims and objectives of CAB:

To generate awareness amongst the consumers on their internationally recognized

rights and responsibilities as consumers.

Encourage and help develop consumer associations and consumer activist groups
at the district and rural levels.

Provide mediation and legal support to aggrieved consumers.

Undertake research and studies on consumer issues, challenges and problems.

CONSUMER PROTECTION IN BANGLADESH

Developing understanding and partnerships with different groups, associations,

institutions, NGOs and government departments and services in furtherance to the
welfare of the general consumers in the country.

To develop and foster contacts and liaison with the national and international
organizations having similar objectives.

Testing products and services regularly to ensure market place is safe and
consumer friendly.

How CAB helps consumers:

CAB has its own complaint cell. An aggrieved consumer, whose right has been
violated, may submit a complaint via post, email or in person. After receiving the
complaint, CAB investigates the matter and provides redress in the form of
settlement through negotiation and mediations between the parties. Legal
assistance is sometimes provided to the aggrieved consumers.

CAB monitors prices of essential goods in the market on regular basis and
publishes the price list through media for convenience and knowledge of the
consumers