Vijayawada: Online consumers also covered, says SERP CEO

Vijayawada : Additional commissioner of Land Administration department and CEO of Society for Eradication of Rural Poverty (SERP) said that consumers Protection Act is applicable for online consumers also.

Releasing the brochure on ‘The rights and benefits-Consumers Protection Act-2019’ brought out by Federation of Consumer Organisations here on Wednesday, Imtiaz said that the consumers should be aware of e-Commerce and e-Payments. “As per the Act the consumer disputes could be redressed through an arbitrator,” he said.

He said that the consumers may use national consumer helpline No 1915 and AP Integrated call centre No 1967 when they were cheated due to unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements. The consumers could get justice and compensation through the Consumer Protection Act.

He appealed to the consumer organisation to bring awareness among online consumers regarding the new technology in digital transactions and solutions to the problems they are facing. Imtiaz lauded state president of the Federation of Consumer Organisations Kandregula Venkata Ramana for his efforts in the direction of bringing awareness.

Referring to the precautions to be taken by the consumers, Imtiaz said that they should obtain bills for every purchase and go through the guarantee/warranty period before purchase and also check the expiry date on the labels.

Kandregula Venkata Ramana, SERP information technology director Ganti Srinivasa Rao, activists Shaik Nazeer, B Jagan and others were present.