A consumer forum in Chandigarh has been ordered by a consumer forum to pay a fine of Rs.9000 for charging a customer Rs.3 for Paper Bags. After purchasing a product from a Bata shop in Chandigarh worth Rs.399, Dinesh Prasad Raturi, the customer was charged an additional of 3 Rupees and the bill of Rs. 402 was handed over to him.
The incident happened on 5th of Feb and Dinesh made a complaint with the Consumer Forum that through him, the company was promoting its brand by making him buy Bata’s paper bag for Rs.3.
Did you know what happened next? The Consumer Forum found this practice of Bata to be a violation. The forum asked the company to pay a litigation charge of Rs.3000, deposit Rs 5,000 in the legal aid account of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, pay a compensation of Rs.3000 to Dinesh along with the refund of Rs.3.
The forum took this decision because it held the company responsible for providing the customers paper bags as they have made purchase in their shop.
It has also instructed Bata to provide their customers free paper bags upon making purchase of their products and it suggested other companies to provide eco-friendly bags to customers for free.