One product, one price

Pushpa Girimaji

Last week, while picking up some food at the Hyderabad airport, I asked for a bottle of water and was charged twice the amount that I pay outside. When I protested, the retailer told me that he was only charging the MRP marked on the bottle. I was shocked to find that it bore MRP of Rs 40 and said it was meant for sale at airports. Can you sell the same water bottle at different prices at different places?

You may be aware that earlier, retailers at airports and even multiplexes were charging for a bottle of water, much more than the MRP marked on the package, their explanation being that their overheads were high! As consumers complained, the department of legal metrology started taking action against them for violation of the law.

Rule 6 of the Packaged Commodities Rules, 2011, formulated under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, mandates display of retail price on all pre-packed goods meant for sale, distribution and delivery and this includes bottled water. Rule 18 (2) prohibits their sale at a price higher than the printed price. Rule 18 (6) also says that the manufacturer or packer or the importer shall not alter the price on the wrapper once printed and used for packing.

So in order to help the airport kiosks circumvent the law and charge a higher price, manufacturers of water bottles started putting a different price on water and other beverages being supplied to airports and cinemplexes and even some malls, forcing several consumers to take up this issue before the consumer court.

In Big Cinemas and Reliance Media-Works limited Vs Manoj Kumar (RP NO 2038 of 2015) the complaint centered around one such dual pricing of water. The complainant here said that a bottle of Aquafina was being sold at Rs 30 at the cinema hall while its price outside was Rs 16. The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, before which the case was first filed, directed the opposite parties to refund Rs 14 to the consumer and pay a compensation of Rs 5,000, besides litigation cost of Rs 1,500. The Big Cinemas and Reliance Media Works then filed an appeal before the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission later.

The apex consumer court upheld the views of the lower consumer courts and in its order dated February 1, 2016, directed the opposite parties to pay, in addition, Rs 5 lakh to be credited to the Consumer Legal Aid account of the Commission. While doing so, it warned against dual pricing of the same product at different outlets. “There cannot be two MRPs, accept in accordance with the law,” the Commission held. It also asked the director, legal metrology, to “wake up, make an enquiry and take action against the wrong doers.”

Following this order, the department has been sending advisories to various legal metrology departments in states and union territories to take note and ensure that there is no differential pricing of the same product. There is no provision under the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules for such dual pricing and the states should put stop to such practice, the department has said.

So where can one complain if one is sold a water bottle bearing higher MRP?

In such cases, keep the receipt and the empty bottle with you and lodge a complaint with the department of legal metrology in your state. Even if you do not buy the bottle, but find any outlet selling bottles marked with a higher price, go ahead and complain. You can get the phone number and the e-mail address from the website of the department of legal metrology in your state. You can also lodge a complaint before the consumer court; there have been several judgements of these courts on the subject.

Having said that, I must point out that the state enforcement agencies should put up notices at prominent places in airports and multiplexes, bringing to the notice of the consumers, the legal position on dual pricing and asking consumers to send their complaints to specified phone numbers for quick action.

The department should also tweak the packaged commodities rules to ensure that there is no ambiguity whatsoever in the law on the subject.