Pralhad Joshi launches key initiatives for the protection of Consumer Rights on the National Consumer Day

Pralhad Joshi presides over the celebrations of National Consumer Day 2024, today  in Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi with the launch of several pro-Consumer initiatives.

National Consumer Day is dedicated to acknowledging the rights and needs of consumers and highlighting the significant strides the department has made in protecting and empowering consumers over the past year. The theme for this year's National Consumer Day is "Virtual Hearings & Digital Access to Consumer Justice," reflecting the commitment to enhancing consumer welfare through innovative solutions and transparent redressal systems.

  Shri Pralhad Joshi, in his inaugural address said that virtual Hearings of grievances is giving consumers digital access to justice and this reflects the commitment of Prime Minister Shri Narender Modi in ensuring efficient and accessible justice to the consumers. The Minister emphasized on the achievements of the CCPA in the past years for the protection of consumer interest through its class actions suits and actions. Some of the milestone achievements mentioned were refund of Rupees 1454/- Crores by travel companies to consumers affected due to cancelled flight tickets due to Covid-19 lockdown after the CCPA took action against them, the actions taken against the coaching institutes against 45 coaching centers across nation for misleading advertisements, car seat belt alarm stopper clips have been delisted from these 5 e-commerce platforms based on the Orders passed by CCPA against Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Shopclues and Meesho to delist all such products which violates consumer rights and unfair trade practice under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.  He appreciated the action taken by CCPA against surrogate advertisement by issuing 13 notices to the companies. He further, appreciated the policy work done by the CCPA by releasing the following Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Greenwashing and Misleading Environmental Claims, 2024 and Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector 2024 in the year 2024.

Shri Joshi congratulated CCPA for issuing Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023 and taking actions against the dark pattern. And he encouraged CCPA to continue its efforts in protecting consumers.