PRODUCT LIABILITY UNDER THE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, 2019: A PARADIGM SHIFT

Abstract

Since last two decades, the world has experienced a considerable growth in technology and
ecommerce resulting thereby a challenge to face overgrowing issues like defect and deficiency in
consumerism. Every product entering the market has to meet the test of legitimate expectation of
safety and standard quality to consumers. As far as Indian scenario is concerned, the earlier 1986
Consumer Protection Act (hereinafter 1986 Act) did not address these issues towards utmost
satisfaction of the consumers. Besides, if the goods or services fall short of prescribed standards,
the consequences can be very detrimental for the rights of the consumers. Over again, the cases
of defective products have been on the rise from all sectors, viz, food and beverages,
pharmaceuticals, personal care products, domestic appliances, motor vehicles, farm machinery,
and many others. To come up with these challenges, Chapter VI of the 2019 Consumer
Protection Act (hereinafter 2019 Act) introduces the concept of “product liability” for the first
time in Indian consumer law and contains specific provisions laying down the liability for the
manufacturers, sellers, and service providers. This paper provides a careful scrutiny of the
product liability and working of the provisions of product liability action in the 2019 Act.