Suppliers of components liable for failure of final products under Consumer Protection Act, 2015
Updated: Dec 05, 2015 12:03:58pm
New Delhi, Dec 5 (KNN) The Consumer Protection Bill, 2015 has provisions relating to product liability as per which, manufacturers will be liable for any personal injury, death, or property damage that is caused to the consumer resulting from defects in the manufacture, construction, design, formula, preparation, assembly, testing, service, warning, instruction, marketing, packaging, or labelling of any product.
This was mentioned by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan in Rajya Sabha recently.
The Bill already introduced in the Lok Sabha incorporates product liability action, under which manufacturer or producer of a defective product shall be liable for the injuries or damages caused by the product. Products liability laws are prevalent in the developed world which specifies the liability of any or all parties along the chain of manufacture of any product for damage caused by that product.
This includes the manufacturer of component parts (at the top of the chain), an assembling manufacturer, the wholesaler, and the retail store owner (at the bottom of the chain). Products containing inherent defects that cause harm to a consumer of the product, or someone to whom the product was loaned, given, etc, are the subjects of products liability suits under such Acts.
However, the crucial term here is the chain of manufacturing which make supplier of a small component say, packaging of the product, liable for prosecution, if it is proven that the product failed due to faulty packaging. However, the manufacturer shall not be liable for the product, if the manufacturer provided warnings or instructions to the manufacturer's immediate buyer, as per the proposed Act.
While the proposed Act may provide the consumer sufficient protection from the defective product, it may cause huge legal burden on the MSMEs vendors of both FMCG and consumer durable manufacturers. This will need adoption of elaborate quality standards by such vendors and what is more important maintain complete traceability i. e. records of the entire flow of a component or a batch.
The proposed Bill also simplifies the consumer dispute adjudication process in the consumer fora. These include, among others, enhancing the financial limits of the consumer grievance redressal agencies, increasing minimum number of members in the consumer courts to facilitate quick disposal of complaints, constitution of ‘Circuit Bench’ to facilitate quicker disposal of complaints etc. (KNN Bureau)
This was mentioned by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan in Rajya Sabha recently.
The Bill already introduced in the Lok Sabha incorporates product liability action, under which manufacturer or producer of a defective product shall be liable for the injuries or damages caused by the product. Products liability laws are prevalent in the developed world which specifies the liability of any or all parties along the chain of manufacture of any product for damage caused by that product.
This includes the manufacturer of component parts (at the top of the chain), an assembling manufacturer, the wholesaler, and the retail store owner (at the bottom of the chain). Products containing inherent defects that cause harm to a consumer of the product, or someone to whom the product was loaned, given, etc, are the subjects of products liability suits under such Acts.
However, the crucial term here is the chain of manufacturing which make supplier of a small component say, packaging of the product, liable for prosecution, if it is proven that the product failed due to faulty packaging. However, the manufacturer shall not be liable for the product, if the manufacturer provided warnings or instructions to the manufacturer's immediate buyer, as per the proposed Act.
While the proposed Act may provide the consumer sufficient protection from the defective product, it may cause huge legal burden on the MSMEs vendors of both FMCG and consumer durable manufacturers. This will need adoption of elaborate quality standards by such vendors and what is more important maintain complete traceability i. e. records of the entire flow of a component or a batch.
The proposed Bill also simplifies the consumer dispute adjudication process in the consumer fora. These include, among others, enhancing the financial limits of the consumer grievance redressal agencies, increasing minimum number of members in the consumer courts to facilitate quick disposal of complaints, constitution of ‘Circuit Bench’ to facilitate quicker disposal of complaints etc. (KNN Bureau)
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