An Overview Of The Changes To Be Introduced By The Consumer Protection Act, 2019

The first consumer protection legislation Consumer Protection Act, 1986 ('old act') was introduced with the primary objective of protecting consumer rights. However, with the advent of technology and the introduction of e-commerce and various other mechanisms of conducting business, an overhaul of the existing legislation seemed necessary and prudent in order to better protect modern-day consumers. Over the past 20 years, the consumer landscape in India has seen a paradigm starting with the economy opening up in the early 1990s to the advent of online marketplaces and e-commerce. The affordability and propensity to spend of the average Indian consumer as well have gone up. Therefore, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 ('the Act') has been passed which is an attempt to update the old act by replicating the same. The majority of the provisions of the Act have been notified vide notification¹ dated 15^th July 2020 and has been brought into effect from 20^th July 2020.