When the Consumer Rights Act was enacted in 2009, there was no such thing as e-commerce or online shopping. Online shopping has become quite popular in recent times. But as there is no policy to protect the interests of the e-buyers, the sellers or service providers continue to impose arbitrary conditions, which is why the buyers or service recipients are not getting redress in case of fraud or any misconduct.
According to Prothom Alo, as online business or e-commerce expands in the country, so do the allegations of consumer fraud. As many as 8,416 complaints have been received against e-commerce companies. According to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), victims rarely go to the department to seek compensation. The main complaint against e-commerce companies is delay in delivering products. The e-commerce company Evaly has terms and conditions in 4,600 words on its website and Daraz's website has 6,600-word terms and conditions. Most of the buyers find it difficult to read the terms and condition written in English. In their terms, the products will be delivered subject to stock. Apart from this, the companies have also laid down conditions that the supply of goods may be delayed at any time due to cancellation of contract and unavoidable reasons. These conditions are completely against the interests of the buyer.
According to the Consumer Protection Act 2009, the buyer can seek legal remedy if the sellers do not use brand names while packaging, not displaying the price list with the products, not maintaining and displaying the service lists, selling goods at high prices, stocking goods, selling adulterated goods , mixing contraband ingredients in food products, manufacture of products in illegal process, fraud by false advertisement, not delivering the promised products, fraud in weight and measurement, fraud in in measurement, manufacture of fake products, sale of date-expired products and negligence.
The problem is that most buyers in the country do not know where and how to seek remedies. And there is no guarantee that the remedy will be available right away. According to the law, there should be an office of its department in each district. But there is no office in 15 districts and issues are resolved with the offices of neighbouring districts.
The law calls for harsher punishment against the supply of adulterated and substandard goods which is not implemented at all. Although campaigns against adulterated commodities have been launched since 2004, the situation has not improved much. When news about the quality of a product is published in the media, the consumer department becomes active for a while. Everything gets back as before.
In this context, it is very logical that CAB has demanded to amend the Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009 to protect the interests of online consumers and to make the National Consumer Rights Protection Department more people-friendly and strong. Arrangements need to be made so that consumers can file all kinds of complaints online.
Consumers have the right to get the right price, size and quality products. But they have been being deprived and cheated. Many times the service provider violates the legal rights of the consumer by filing a writ petition in the court. In that case also the cases need to be settled quickly.