ITC penalised by Rs. 1 lakh for packaging one less cookie
ITC made the defence that the biscuits were sold according to their weight rather than the quantity of biscuits per packet.
ITC Limited, a major player in the MCG industry, has been ordered to pay Rs. 1 lakh in justice for selling biscuit packs that had less biscuits than stated.
The consumer forum in Chennai judged ITC to have engaged in unfair business practises and decided in the complainant’s favour.
P Dillibabu, a resident of Chennai, purchased two packs of “Sun Feast Marie Light” cookies from a shop in Manali two years ago with the intention of feeding stray dogs.
The wrapper of one of the packets plainly said that there were 16 biscuits inside, Dillibabu was surprised to find only 15 biscuits inside.
He inquired at the store for clarification but got no response. He turned to ITC for explanation out of frustration, but their answer was inadequate.
According to Dillibabu’s lawsuit, the FMCG giant’s packaging error cost unwary customers a lot of money every day.
ITC was estimated to be defrauding the people of over Rs. 29 lakh every day with each biscuit costing Rs. 0.75 and the business creating 50 million packets on a daily basis.
ITC made the defence that the biscuits were sold according to their weight rather than the quantity of biscuits per packet. The biscuit packet’s declared net weight was 76 grams.
However, the biscuit packs consistently contained just 74 grams when independent evaluations were made by weighing them. The consumer court subsequently rejected this defence.
The Chennai-based consumer court decided in Dillibabu’s favour and ordered ITC to provide him Rs. 1 lakh in restitution, marking a significant victory for the consumer.
In order to protect other customers from experiencing the same problem, the court also ordered the corporation to stop selling the specific batch of biscuits that had given rise to the dispute.
Overall, consumer court is focused on and friendly to consumers. Rules that would typically apply to strictly judicial proceedings are loosened in this case. Also subject to deadlines, consumer courts can accelerate cases if needed.
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