Consumer protection policies create an environment whereby the clients and customers receive satisfaction from the delivery of goods and services. One of the disquieting features of India's democracy is that an average Indian consumer continues to be in a pitiable condition due to poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, and general apathy. Adulterated food, spurious medicines, and sub-standard domestic appliances are pushed over the counter with ease. Unethical advertisements appear in print and electronic media. When it became imperative to protect the consumers from sub-standard goods and deficient services, and also provide relief by way of compensation, India's Consumer Protection Act was enacted in 1986. The objective of this Act is to offer better protection to the country's consumers against the fraudulent practices of suppliers. The Act provides for effective safeguards for consumers against various types of exploitation and unfair dealings, relying on mainly compensatory rather than punitive or preventive approach. This book examines the rights of consumers and the protective measures adopted in India and other countries. It specifically deals with the statutory measures for redressal of consumer grievances provided under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. [Subject: India Studies, Economics, Business]

Papers presented at a national workshop held during 4-8 August 2005; in Indian context.

This book examines how markets have evolved and provides insights for improved consumer policy making. It explores, for the first time, how what we have learned through the study of behavioural economics is changing the way policy makers are addressing problems.

This book analyses the legal approach to personal data taken by different fields of law. An increasing number of business models in the digital economy rely on personal data as a key input. In exchange for sharing their data, online users benefit from personalized and innovative services. But companies’ collection and use of personal data raise questions about privacy and fundamental rights. Moreover, given the substantial commercial and strategic value of personal data, their accumulation, control and use may raise competition concerns and negatively affect consumers. To establish a legal framework that ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data while at the same time providing an open and level playing field for businesses to develop innovative data-based services is a challenging task.With this objective in mind and against the background of the uniform rules set by the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the contributions to this book examine the significance and legal treatment of personal data in competition law, consumer protection law, general civil law and intellectual property law. Instead of providing an isolated analysis of the different areas of law, the book focuses on both synergies and tensions between the different legal fields, exploring potential ways to develop an integrated legal approach to personal data.

In the developing country like India, measures for consumer protection are very much required. The illiteracy and ignorance of the majority of consumers both in the rural and urban areas provide opportunities for business communities to follow unfair trade practices. These have to be curtailed through various measures of the Government and other non-Governmental organisations. Of the various legal remedies available, the principle legal protection is the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Under this Act, the consumer gets opportunities to entrust his grievances through the consumer forums organised at the District, State and National levels and other voluntary consumer organisations. The Consumer awareness, protection and preservation of consumer rights and well analyzed in this book.

Consumer protection has become the topic of debate at all levels. The reason behind this has been the lack of awareness of consumers and the malpractices of the business world. In order to maximize profits, many businessmen exploit consumers by supplying poor qual-ity goods at higher prices. They adopt unfair trade practices such as adulteration, boarding, black-marketing, etc. As a result, consumers do not get value for their money. Big business houses use their power for private gain and to the detriment of consumers. Consumers are exposed to physical, environmental and other hazards. They need to be protected from spurious, duplicate and adulterated products, pollution of air, water and noise, and misleading advertising. Consumer protection, however, is only possible if two steps are taken. First is to frame rules, legislations and set up machinery like courts to assure that laws are implemented in their true spirits. Second is to make the stakeholders aware of such laws so that they might defend themselves when required. Keeping these two steps in mind, this study has been undertaken. It covers the evaluation of consumer protection machinery and assesses the level of awareness of consumers in Himachal Pradesh. A brief outline of the thesis is as below. Chapter - I deals with the introduction to consumer protection. It discusses the meaning of consumer, consumer protection, and consumerisms. It also discusses the consumer's rights, needs, and consumer's responsibilities. Chapter - II reviews the literature concerning the problem at hand. It also presents a picture of research design formulated for the present research work. It discusses the selection of the problem, importance, scope, objectives, hypotheses and research methodology of the present study. Finally, the limitations and the future scope of study have been shown. Chapter - III discusses consumerism and consumer protection movements at the international and national level. Chapter - IV is an attempt to examine various legislations for consumer protection at the international level as well at the national level in India. Chapter - V reviews the frameworks for consumer dispute resolution and redress in India. Chapter - VI examines the organizational setup for the consumer protection along with its evaluation in Himachal Pradesh. Chapter - VII deals with the analyses of opinion and perception about consumer awareness and consumer alertness with regard to consumer protection. Chapter - VIII highlights the summary and major findings of the study. It also explains suggestions to improve the implementation of consumer protection laws and awareness among people.