Man Files Case Against Matrimony Site After Not Finding Bride, Received Rs 25000 as Compensation

A consumer court in Kerala's Ernakulam recently directed Kerala Matrimony to pay Rs 25,000 in compensation to a man who alleged that the match-making portal failed to find him a bride. The court observed that the man was one of several victims of the platform. Additionally, the matrimonial website must refund the Rs 4,100 fee they charged him, along with Rs 3,000 as litigation costs.

The case arose when the man registered on Kerala Matrimony's website in 2018, paying a subscription fee for three months. Despite his payment, the website allegedly failed to provide the promised services, leading to the court's ruling.

District forum chairman DB Binu and other members Ramachandran V and Srividya TN passed the order on May 15 after concluding that there was deficiency in service on the part of Kerala Matrimony.

According to Bar and Bench, the forum said that the complainant was one of the many 'victims' of the matrimonial website and public opinion from social media was also collected by the complainant to strengthen her case.

The forum said, 'The opposition party made attractive statements to attract the attention of the life partner seekers and did not provide the required services. It has not presented any evidence to prove that it has provided the services promised to the complainant."

In the past too, users have reported encountering fake profiles on matrimony sites. These profiles may be created by scammers or individuals with malicious intent. It's essential for users to verify the authenticity of profiles before engaging in conversations. In some cases, users have found that the information provided in profiles (such as education, occupation, or family background) doesn't match reality. Misrepresentation can lead to disappointment and frustration.

47% of LED Bulb Brands Contempt Consumer Safety Standards: Nielsen Study

In a Nielsen study conducted across 8 major Indian cities – New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Durgapur, Bareilly, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad; 47% of LED Bulb brands and 52% of LED downlighter brands across 400 electrical retail outlets were found to be non-compliant with consumer safety standards, as prescribed and mandated for lighting products by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. These spurious products are a safety hazard for consumers besides causing significant loss in tax revenues for the Government of India, as they are illegally manufactured and sold.

In LED Bulbs category, Hyderabad had the highest non-compliance levels in BIS mark at 57% and Ahmedabad at 60% had the highest non-compliance levels in legal metrology. Whereas in the LED Downlighter category, Bareilly had the highest non-compliance in BIS mark at 78% and Mumbai topped the charts in non-compliance in legal metrology at 78%.

As per this study, more than half of LED bulb brands surveyed in the national capital (52%) did not conform to BIS standards (absence of the BIS mark) and same is the case when it comes to LED downlighters (58%). 36% of the LED bulb brands and 58% of LED Downlighter brands surveyed did not follow legal metrology guidelines in the national capital.

The illustration below details the city wise nature of violations and puts the data for non-compliant brands across both the segments in a national context.

% of Non-Compliant Brands
Parameters	LED Bulbs
	National Average	Delhi	Hyderabad	Ahmedabad	Mumbai	Kolkata	Chennai	Durgapur	Bareilly
BIS Mark	47%	52%	57%	53%	53%	41%	43%	28%	44%
Legal metrology	44%	36%	48%	60%	36%	49%	34%	34%	50%
% of Non-Compliant Brands
Parameters	LED Downlighters
	National Average	Delhi	Hyderabad	Ahmedabad	Mumbai	Kolkata	Chennai	Durgapur	Bareilly
BIS Mark	52%	58%	55%	46%	48%	44%	23%	58%	78%
Legal metrology	61%	58%	57%	75%	78%	61%	40%	63%	53%

As per ELCOMA (Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers’ Association), the total LED Market in India is worth Rs 11,400 crores, with LED bulbs and downlighters constituting 72% of the overall LED market, being widely used across homes, offices and workspaces.

Raju Bista, President, ELCOMA and Managing Director of Surya Roshni Ltd said “These non-compliant manufacturers don’t follow mandated safety procedures and hence the products manufactured by them are not only unsafe but also less energy efficient. This will negatively impact the government’s focus on promoting energy efficient products and harm the image of the LED industry.”

Commenting on the subject, Sumit Padmakar Joshi, Vice President of ELCOMA and CEO, Signify Innovations India Ltd. (formerly known as Philips Lighting India) said, “The LED industry has grown significantly over the past 5-6 years and this has led to the entry of several products that are non-compliant to safety standards defined by BIS. This latest study confirms that half of the LED products sold in the country still do not adhere to consumer safety standards as defined by the Government of India. We urge the government to take stringent measures to ensure better compliance to safety standards to protect the average consumer’s interests.”

Sunil Sikka, Advisor, ELCOMA remarked, “The increase in market share of spurious lighting products is a matter of huge concern for the lighting industry, as these products not just endanger consumers, but also cause significant harm to the exchequer through non-payment of taxes. With half of the lighting products sold in the country being non-compliant to safety standards, it is important that the government steps in to prevent further damage.”

The Indian Lighting industry unanimously recommends a need for stronger enforcement for compliance to these safety standards prescribed and mandated by the Bureau of Indian Standards and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. The spurious and non-branded LED products are a serious threat to not just the organized and compliant market players but also to the government’s key programs like Make in India. In addition, they also impact government’s tax revenue collections, which would have otherwise been contributed by the formal sector, defeats investment objectives and goes against the ‘ease of doing’ business philosophy of the Government of the day.

*The Nielsen study was conducted across 400 retail electrical goods outlets across 8 major Indian cities – New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Durgapur, Bareilly, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. The survey was conducted in 2018.

~ Business Wire India

Consumer Body Strongly Appeals for E-Commerce Regulatory Body in the Lines of RERA

Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI), a non-profit consumer body to protect and educate the Indian consumer, has strongly appealed to Indian government to form a regulatory body for e-commerce called as, Online Commerce Regulatory Authority (OCRA), which can be on the lines of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA).

RERA , which is first regulator of Indian real estate industry, aims to protect the interests of real estate consumers and also boost investments in the real estate sector.

The proposed e-commerce regulatory body OCRA will allow online sellers/merchants to register online, maintain proper accounting of their sales and adhere to strict quality control. All this are proposed to occur automatically from OCRA.

Notably, in July this year, government had drafted a national e-commerce policy which also propose a national regulator for e-commerce that too aims to ensure consumer protection, along with compliance with foreign investment caps in e-commerce.

However, the proposed OCRA will be quite different from the one by government as the later is an independent regulator that will deal with consumer complaints, compliance with FDI caps. Whereas, OCRA proposed by CGSI will deal with the registration of all online commercial retailers and suppliers, regulate their advertisements and ultimately make e-commerce companies accountable with authorities to attend to the grievances faced by the consumers and avoid multiple frauds.

According to Dr MS Kamath, honorary secretary of CGSI, "The online commercial market is expected to grow at a 30% compound annual rate for gross merchandise value worth $200 billion by 2026. As the industry grows, there is also a clamour of complaints against online commerce companies of cheating their consumers and often delivering them goods which are far short of what they offer in their advertisements."

He further informed that in 2017, CGCI received 275 complaints against e-commerce companies and of the total 275 complaints, Amazon constituted 13.86%, Flipkart 12.87%, Paytm 11.55%, Snapdeal 7.59% and e-Bay 7.26%.

The proposed law for establishing OCRA will also have a provision for timely and assured delivery, transparent refund mechanism, post-sale services, enforcement of post sales warranty, the establishment of Consumer Protection Fund and formation of online courts.

CGSI was founded 50 years ago by women activists in 1966 actively champions for the rights of consumers in India and it was the efforts of CGSI that the Consumer Protection Act was enacted in the year 1986 and the Consumer Courts were set up across India thereafter.

Source - DNA India

70% Consumers Would Stop Doing Business with Companies Following A Data Breach, Finds Survey

A majority (70%) of consumers would stop doing business with a company if it experienced a data breach, according to a survey of more than 10,000 consumers worldwide conducted on behalf of Gemalto, the world leader in digital security. In addition, six in ten Indian consumers (59%) feel businesses don’t take the security of customer data very seriously.

Despite these concerns, the Gemalto study found that consumers are failing to adequately secure themselves, with over half of the Indian respondents (51 %) still using the same password for multiple online accounts. Even when businesses offer robust security solutions, such as two-factor authentication, a quarter (28%) of consumers admit to not using the technology to secure social media accounts, leaving them vulnerable to data breaches.

This may be because the majority of consumers (66%) believe the business holding their data is mostly responsible for its security. As per Indian respondents, they have poor security hygiene and fail to take advantage of security measures available to them such as two-factor authentication (28%) for social media accounts. This is resulting in businesses being forced to take additional steps to protect consumers and enforce robust security measures, as well as educate them on the benefits of adopting these.

“Consumers are evidently happy to relinquish the responsibility of protecting their data to a business, but are expecting it to be kept secure without any effort on their part,” says Jason Hart, CTO, Identity and Data Protection at Gemalto. “In the face of brewing conversations around data protection and privacy law, it’s now up to businesses to ensure they are forcing security protocols on their customers to keep data secure. It’s no longer enough to offer these solutions as an option. These protocols must be mandatory from the start – otherwise businesses will face not only financial consequences, but also potentially legal action from consumers.”

Despite their behaviour, consumers’ security concerns are high, as two thirds (68%) worry they will be victims of a data breach in the near future in India. Consequently, consumers now hold businesses accountable – if their data is stolen, the majority (96%) of consumers in India would take or consider taking legal action against the compromised business.

Globally Consumers Trust Some Industries More Than Others

When it comes to the businesses that consumers trust least, over half (58%) believe that social media sites are one of the biggest threats to their data, with one in five (20%) fearful of travel sites – worryingly, one in ten (9%) think no sites pose a risk to them.

On the other hand, a third (33%) of consumers trust banks the most with their personal data, despite them being frequent targets and victims of data breaches, with industry certified bodies (12%), device manufacturers (11%) and the government (10%) next on the list.

Hart continues, “It’s astonishing that consumers are now putting their own data at risk, by failing to use these measures, despite growing concerns around their security. It’s resulting in an alarming amount of breaches – 80% – being caused by weak or previously stolen credentials. Something has to change soon on both the business and consumer sides or this is only going to get worse.”



About the Survey

10,500 Adult consumers were interviewed by Vanson Bourne globally. Countries included were the US, UK, France, Germany, India, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Benelux, UAE and South Africa. All of those surveyed actively use online/mobile banking, social media accounts or online retail accounts.

Akosha lets you resolve complaints against any brand in India

Have you ever felt pissed off talking over phone to companies/brands from whom you have purchased product or services and it is not working well and is faulty. Then there is an organized way of filing complaints against leading brands in India and get resolution as well.

Akosha is an online consumer forum platform for consumers to lodge their complaints against any brand in India. If you have complaint against any brand ( e.g. airtel, flipkart, lg, samsung, etc) you can file a complaint, Akosha then take the complaint directly to the escalation team of the company and update you over phone and SMS.

This is first of its kind online service in India, where people can submit complaints against any brand in India by submitting online form and few details, Akosha then take up these consumer complaints with the escalation departments of brand against whom the complaint has been submitted and try to resolve. Once you file the complaint Akosha in the background send a well drafted letter explaining the details of your complaint along with the inconvenience caused to you.

Moreover, if any brand fails to resolve the consumers' complains, Akosha even helps to take it forward to respective consumer courts of their cities across India and helps consumers approaching these consumer courts by preparing required documentation and paperwork. Akosha works for complaint against brands/companies in various sectors such as banking, insurance, e-commerce, real estate, telecom, appliances, product companies etc.

Deepak Yadav whose complaint was against Airtel was resolved by Akosha, he says in testimonials - "Akosha follow up with the complaint got resolved my complaint within 3 days"

You could register a complaint for free however for further manual process and consumer court cases Akosha charge a fixed processing fee of Rs.499 for the service it provide irrespective of refund or extra compensation any user get from the brand/company against whom complaint has been lodged.

Akosha is a Delhi startup and works with 350+ brands/companies and so far received about 3,00,000+ complaints since year 2010 when it was started. Akosha is planning to launch mobile apps for iOS, Android, Windows etc. with ability to take a snapshot with your mobile, of any product you purchase and send it directly to the company if you have any complaint.