Consumer Forum Port Lounge Upload

BEFORE THE HONOURABLE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM/COMMISSION, BANGALORE Complainant’s Name and Address : |||||| |||||||| ||||||||||||| |||||||| |||||| ||||||||||| |||||||| |||||||||| ||||||||| |||||||||||| ||||||| ||||||||||| ||||||||||||||| |||| ||||||||||||| Vs. Opposite Party’s Name and Address : M/s Port Lounge, Unit of PK Hospitality Services Limited, Departure Lounge, Bangalore Airport, TIN: 29050476982 Complaint filed under section 12(a) of the Consumer Protectio n Act, 1986 1. The Complainant is |||||| |||||||| ||||||||||||| |||||||||||||| |||| |||||||| |||||| ||||||||||| |||||||| |||||||||| ||||||||| |||||||||||| ||||||| ||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||| . The address for service of orders and process o f the complainant is as above. 2. The Opposite Party is M/s Port Lounge, Unit of PK Hospitality Services Limited, Departure Lounge, Bangalore Airport, TIN: 29050476982 The address for service of all notices and process orders of the Opposite Party is as stated above. 3. Particulars relating to goods/services complained of : a. Details of goods/service : Item: 200ml Bejois Apple packaged juice – 1 piece, packed on 13 th January, Batch number 07B Date: 10th March, 2007 Amount paid as consideration : Rs 30 (attached ph otocopy of sale bill) b. The complaint relates to : Excess price charged by trader above MRP. 4. The complaint state as follows: a. The facts of the complaint: On 10 th March, 2007, I was at the Bangalore Airport departure lounge waiting to catch a domestic flig ht. I bought the item mentioned in Para (3)(a) which has an MRP of Rs 10. The trader charged me Rs 30 for the same. I asked him whether he knew that

he was committing an illegal act by selling above the MRP. He said that they have to sell above MRP because of "airport taxes". When I asked for a bill, he gave me a bill which did not have the name of the item on it. It said "Power failure" and "Item 1 --- Rs 30". When I said I would not accept this, he gave me another bill with just "Juice --- Rs 30" printed on it. I then asked him to give me a hand made bill mentioning clearly the exact item that I'd bought, the printed price of the item I'd bought, and what were the exact taxes and amounts that were being charged. The person refused. I asked him to call hi s manager. He said his manager would come in half an hour, knowing full well that no passenger will miss his flight waiting for the manager. I asked for the name and phone number of his manager, but he refused again. I continued asking him while he was c ontinuing to serve other people . Then I told him that I would take out my camera and take his photograph and take that as proof. Finally, he called his supervisor, a Mr. Prakash (9845482108) . The supervisor came and I asked him for a hand written bill mentioning the exact “taxes” that constituted the extra Rs 20 above the MRP of Rs 10 . He refused to give me a bill as well. The supervisor also pretended to be ignorant and said that he didn't know anything, his manager set the prices, etc, but refused to giv e me his manager's name/number as well. Finally, I got him to write the name of the juice packet on the bill itself with ink and made him stamp it. A copy of this is attached as proof. b. The cause of action for the complaint (i.e., what led you to file the complaint before the Forum/Commission): 1. Overcharging is illegal under the Packaged Commodities Rules (PCR), which states that any trader charging more than the MRP mentioned on the package can be prosecuted. This is a clear case of overcharging, with do cumented proof. Such rampant overcharging is unscrupulous exploitation of consumers and must be stopped. 2. On 5 th March, 2007, the Delhi High Court upheld the right of hotels and restaurants to charge customers higher than the MRP for a bottle of mineral wat er as the customer is being charged extra for the “ambience” of the place. However, the shop in question is neither a “hotel” nor a “restaurant” but a shop in the premises of the Bangalore airport, and the ambience is provided for by the airport authoritie s for which other taxes

are levied as applicable with the ticket. Hence this is no cause for this shop to overcharge on packaged goods. 3. A proper bill was not given by the shop. First the trader gave a bill saying "Power failure" and "Item 1 --- Rs 30", after insisting he gave a bill mentioning “ Juice --- Rs 30". There was no mention of the name of the Packaged Commodity, the MRP, the nature and amount of taxes that have been added to reach a total of Rs. 30. This is quite clearly illegal. As a consumer I ha ve a right to get a proper bill, explaining all prices and taxes which has to be given by the trader on demand. No trader can refuse to give a bill for sale of legal goods.

c. The place where the complaint jurisdiction of the forum applied to:

originated

to

explain

Departure Lounge, Bangalore Domestic Airport, Bangalore d. Statement that the complaint is filed within the limitation period. If not explain how delay was condoned by the Forum: The incident occurred on 10th March, 2007. The complaint before the Honourable Forum is being filed on , 2007. Hence it is within the limitation period. 5. In the circumstances, the complainant prays that this Honourable Forum / Commission may be pleased to direct the Opposite Party – To pay the following amounts as compensation: 1. Excess amount charged over MRP: Rs 20 2. Cost of filing a complaint at the District Consumer Forum: Rs 100 3. Cost of printing and photocopying: Rs 36 4. Cost of travel to/from District Consumer Forum and Consumer Courts: Rs 200 5. Compensation for personal time and effort spent on pursuing the complaint: Rs 5000 In addition to the above monetary compensations, I appeal to this Honourable Forum/ Commission to pass order or orders intended to penalize the aforementioned trad er for this offence, to prevent the re -occurrence of such an offence by the same trader, and to serve as a deterrent for other traders from committing the same offence.

Verification I, |||||| |||||||| ||||||||||||, the complainant above named do hereby declare that what is stated above in Paras 1 - 4 is true to the best of my knowledge information and belief. Dated at Bangalore, this

day of April, 2007.

Signature of the Complainant List of documents filed with the complaint: Sl. No. 1

Date 10/03/2007

2

11/04/2007

Particulars Page Nos. Photocopy of Item 1 bill Photocopy of 2 complaint letter to Department of Commercial Taxes, Karnataka