Domino's trashed by a customer for charging Rs 13 for a carrybag

The sub Section (5) of Section 36 of the Sale of products Act, 1930, states that ‘unless otherwise agreed, the expenses of and accompanying putting the products into a deliverable state shall be borne by the vendor, and if this law is violated, the vendor has got to pay a hefty fine for it. Well, this is often what precisely happened with a Domino’s Pizza outlet in Chandigarh.

After several state governments decided to travel plastic-free, people are carrying their own carry bags to stores during a bid to save lots of the environment. But if in the least we find yourself buying a carry bag from the stores lately, the worth purchased it pinches us quite anything, right? But as reported by India Today, the law holds that buyers ‘cannot’ be asked to buy a carry bag.

Pankaj Chandgothia, a lawyer by profession was asked to pay Rs.13.33 for a carry bag by the corporate following which he filed a complaint with the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum-II. Chandgothia had quoted the sub Section (5) of Section 36 of the Sale of products Act, 1930 in his application to the forum.

After a customer was wrongly charged Rs.14 by the outlet for providing a carry bag to him, the corporate was asked to deposit Rs.9,80,000 as penalty in Poor Patient Welfare Fund (PPWF) aside from refunding Rs.14 each to 2 different consumers and paying Rs.1500 as compensation for ‘harassment, mental agony and litigation expenses.

When the matter reached the Chandigarh State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, the commission dismissed Jubilant FoodWorks Limited’s (parent company of Domino’s Pizza) appeal and asked it to pay the penalty and therefore the compensation amount.

this isn’t that the primary time that the corporate is slapped with such a hefty fine. According to the report the (DCDR) District Consumer Disputes Redressal in July this year had penalised Jubilant FoodWorks Limited Rs.5 lakh for charging Rs.14 from another customer. the corporate had earlier filed an appeal against the District Consumer Forum saying “there was no law to ban sellers from charging for carry bags.

Previously, a well-liked shoe shop Bata was fined Rs.9000 for charging customer Rs.3 for a sack. Well, subsequent time a store charges you for a carry bag, you now know exactly what to do.

The forum noted that Domino's submitted that it had been only under plastic waste (under management and handling) rules notified in 2011 by the union ministry of environment and forests that it started charging for carry bags.

Discarding this justification, the forum held, ''that notification particularly required retailers to supply only plastic carry bags of a specified quality, and while doing therefore the rules said, " no carry bags shall be made available freed from cost by retailers to consumers”.

Dominos has no right to recover the expenses borne by it on the packing of the products and putting the products during a deliverable state,” Justice Raj Shekhar Attri president of the commission, said in his order.

Justice Attri in his order said within the case of Pankaj Chandgothia vs Dominos, “the compensation awarded by the Forum-1 was inadequate and it should be adequate to the relief granted within the case of Jitender Bansal on the idea of doctrine of equality and stare decisis which needs that in both complaints, equal relief be granted because the facts in both complaints are like one another .”

The commission dismissed the appeals filed by Dominos with further costs of Rs 2,500 to be paid to the complainant and accepted the appeal filed by Pankaj Chandgothia with costs of Rs 2,500 to be paid by Dominos.

The commission also directed Dominos to refund to the complainant Rs 13.33 wrongly charged for the carry bag, to pay Rs 1,500 towards compensation for harassment and mental agony and litigation expenses, to deposit Rs 10,000 within the consumer legal aid account of the state commission and deposit Rs 4,90,000 within the Poor Patient Welfare Fund (PPWF) of the PGIMER, and submit the receipt thereof with the commission.

The exact same order has been passed within the second case of Jitender Bansal while dismissing the appeal filed by Dominos with costs of Rs 2,500 to be paid to the complaint.

 Well everyone has their own perception but according to me in both of cases they showed courage to come in the front. Charging Rs 14 was totally unethical and the penalty of 9,80,000 imposed on them is valid.  

The company should understand the terminology of being a goodwill company, its not ethically right to charge for carry bags with their tags of domino’s.