Cabinet approves Consumer Protection Bill

NEW DELHI: Focused on faster redressal of consumer grievances and to ensure stringent action against unfair trade practices, the Cabinet approved the introduction of the Consumer Protection Bill, 2017, to amend the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, sources said.

The Bill seeks to enlarge the scope of the existing Act and proposes stricter actions against misleading advertisements and food adulteration.

The amended Act will provide for the setting up of a Central Consumer Protection Authority, which will make way for faster redressal of consumer complaints. It will also take up class-action cases, raised by a group of consumers with the same set of complaints.


“Consumer empowerment is one of the main components of the new Act. Misleading ads will be tackled even more strictly,” minister of food, consumer affairs and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan had said in October. The new law will also provide for proper definition and scope for ecommerce, and the rules regulating the sector.