Safety standards of household goods

Consumer Protection Act 2019

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 empowers consumers and help them in protecting their rights through its various notified Rules and provisions like Consumer Protection Councils, Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions, Mediation, Product Liability and punishment for manufacture or sale of products containing adulterant / spurious goods. It came in to force from 20th July 2020. 

Central Consumer Protection Authority 

The objective of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) is to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class. It will be empowered to conduct investigations into violation of consumer rights and institute complaints / prosecution, order recall of unsafe goods and services, order discontinuation of unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements, impose penalties on manufacturers/endorsers/publishers of misleading advertisements.

In exercise of powers under Section 18(2)(j) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Central Consumer Protection Authority issues Safety Notice to alert consumers against buying goods which do not hold valid ISI Mark and violate the standards directed for compulsory use by the Central Government.

Quality Control Orders

To protect consumers from risk of suffering injury and harm and ensure required safety & technical standards are followed. Central Government is empowered to direct conformity to standard and compulsory use of standard mark under Section 16 of BIS Act. These directions are generally published in form of Quality Control Orders (QCO).

Section 17 of the BIS Act prohibits any person to manufacture, import, distribute, sell, hire, lease, store or exhibit for sale any such goods or article for which direction of compulsory use of Standard Mark has been published by the Central Government under Section 16. Further, as per Section 29(3), any person who contravenes the provisions of section 17 shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend up to two years or with fine which shall not be less than two lakh rupees for the first contravention and not be less than five lakh rupees for the second and subsequent contraventions, but may extend up to ten times the value of goods or articles produced or sold or offered to be sold or affixed or applied with a Standard Mark, including Hallmark, or with both. Section 29(4) designates contravention of sub-section (3) as a cognizable offence.

Violation of standards mandated by the QCOs can not only endanger public safety, it can make consumers vulnerable to severe injuries. This is a critical cause for concern especially in case of household goods, since such goods are present in most homes and are in the immediate vicinity of family members.

Safety standards for household goods

The household goods in reference to which CCPA has issued Safety Notice are as under –

Goods which violate compulsory standards are liable to be held ‘defective’ under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Any person found selling the household items as mentioned in the table above without conforming to compulsory standards and holding valid license as prescribed by BIS shall be liable for violation of consumer rights and unfair trade practices and face action under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Source : Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution