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Charging ₹10 for carry bag costs retail outlet ₹11,500
Forum calls out 24SEVEN’s ‘high-handedness’; directs store topay ₹1,500 relief to complainants for causing agony, ₹10,000 in legal aid account
The district consumer disputes redressal commission, Chandigarh, has penalised 24SEVEN, a round-the-clock convenience store chain, for charging ₹10 from two persons in separate cases. The firm has been directed to pay a penalty of ₹11,500, besides refunding ₹10.
In the first case, complainant Sarita Kumari Dawar, a resident of Sector 34 C, stated that on April 21, 2019, she had brought some eatables from the store’s outlet in Sector 21. At the time of payment, she noticed that she was being charged ₹10 for a paper carry bag. She resisted but to no avail.
Alleging that the aforesaid act amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice, Sarita filed a consumer complaint.
Another complaint was filed by Bharat Dawar, a resident of Sector 34 C, against 24SEVEN store in Sector 38-D. He mentioned that he had bought some eatables from the store on April 18 but was charged ₹10 at the billing counter.
In both cases, 24SEVEN contested that before the billing of carry bag, at the sale point, every customer is duly informed of the charges and the customer always has the option of not buying the carry bag.
Pleading that there is “no deficiency in service or unfair trade practice”, it prayed for dismissal of the complaint.
The consumer forum held that the sequence of the events clearly establishes the “high headedness of the opposite party (24SEVEN)”, of which the complainants became victims.
“We deem it proper to penalise the opposite party for indulging in such activity, thereby causing not only loss, mental agony and physical harassment to the complainant, but also giving rise to undesirable litigation and thereby wasting the precious time of this Forum,” the forum mentioned.
In both cases, the forum directed the opposite party to refund ₹10 wrongly charged for the paper bag, to pay compensation of ₹1,000 for harassment and mental agony and ₹500 as litigation expenses. It also directed to deposit ₹10,000 into the ‘Consumer Legal Aid Account’.
