Unfair Trade Practices In India: An Analysis

Project Summary

CUTS with the support of GIZ (India office), an international enterprise owned by the German Federal Government, is working on a project to investigate and analyse the status of unfair trade practices in India, to highlight issues and to recommend a way forward to address such issues within the framework of Indian law.

Ministry of Consumer Affairs seeks to establish an enforcement agency on consumer protection in India to investigate cases of unfair trade practices. The key output of the project will be a report of CUTS recommending the structure and powers of such agency, interlinkages with other sectoral agencies and the legislation process of the agency’s implementation, to help MoCA arrive at a well-informed decision.

It is expected that through this project, CUTS will be able to highlight various capacity gaps existing in dealing with unfair trade practices in India. The report is sought to be finalised by January, 2013.

Purpose

Objectively investigate the current context and undertake a situation analysis on the status of UTPs in India and international best practices and to recommend a clear way forward on how to address the issue within the framework of Indian law.

Expected Outcomes

Identify possible areas for the improvement of MoCAs trade laws and practices, with the aim to increase their efficiency (e.g. in terms of transparency, enforceability of measures and streamlining of procedures) in dealing with UTPs in India

Project Duration

October 06, 2012 – January 31, 2013