For charging ₹5 as “packaging charges” on a take-away order of a cup of hot chocolate, the Sector-35 outlet of Barista Coffee Company Limited will have to pay a compensation of ₹500 to a Sector 69 resident, apart from refunding the packaging charges.
The directions were issued by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Mohali, while disposing of a complaint filed by Pancy Singh Soni, who had moved the consumer commission seeking directions to the coffee company to stop the illegal and unfair trade practice.
In her complaint, Soni submitted that she ordered a cup of hot chocolate at Barista’s Sector-35 outlet for take-away on January 11, 2021, and was billed ₹200 for it. After payment, she realised she was charged ₹5 as packaging charges, which was justified as “strictly under the rules of the company” by an employee.
While seeking dismissal of the complaint, Barista Coffee Company Limited said that the order was for take-away, which required separate packaging and as such the customer was liable to pay the relevant charges.
They alleged that Soni, in collusion with her brother, had been filing such complaints in her own name. The company pointed out that Soni and her brother had filed 10 complaints against them on similar facts in Mohali and more before the Chandigarh Consumer Commission.
{{/usCountry}}They alleged that Soni, in collusion with her brother, had been filing such complaints in her own name. The company pointed out that Soni and her brother had filed 10 complaints against them on similar facts in Mohali and more before the Chandigarh Consumer Commission.
{{/usCountry}}‘No right to charge ₹5 extra in addition to GST’
However, allowing the complaint, the district consumer commission, presided by Sanjiv Dutt Sharma, said, “We feel that the Consumer Protection Act is a benevolent legislation, enacted to help the innocent consumers and to stop such type of malpractices started by these types of companies, who are bent upon looting them. We feel that the opposition party has no right to charge ₹5 in addition to two types of GST for hot chocolate from Soni.”
“There is nothing on record to prove from the side of Barista Coffee Company Limited that they had displayed a separate board/declaration clearly showing that in case anybody wants to take hot chocolate outside the store, they have to pay ₹5 extra for packaging charges. We feel that these acts of the company definitely attract some kind of malpractice on their part,” read the order.