Brands pressurizing citizens to pay for carry bags

February 6, 2020

Brand advertising is a trend in modern day society , lakhs of investments are made in advertisements using different means , but there is such a bad side of companies by which they are doing advertisements but not by paying rather by taking money from the customers i.e. by charging for the carry bags, this is a matter of concern as the carry bags have printed logos on them and indirectly brand use customer for their own benefit. The customers unaware of brand strategy are helping them in advertising by buying the carry bags along with the products. Not only the brands are advertising but also they are charging for the packaging and there is no such law that states that customer is to charged for packaging.

Similar case recently was in highlights when a renowned pizza brand was penalised ,when a lawyer filed case against the company for paying ₹13.33 for the carry bag. The matter when reached the consumer commission the company was penalised with ₹10 lakh. As the law says consumers cannot be asked to pay for carry bags. The lawyer in his application to the forum had quoted sub section (5) of section 36 of the Sale of Goods Act 1930 which makes states that unless otherwise agreed the expenses of and incidental to putting the goods into deliverable state shall be borne by the seller. Thus under this provision of law , all expenses with regard to packaging etc shall be borne by vendor in order to put goods into a deliverable state.

 There are several cases in which brands are penalised by the consumer forum for charging for the packaging along with the term that they are advertising for their brands. Several brands to avoid controversies now have stopped charging for the carry bags but still this trend is prevailing around us. But as a citizen of our country we can approach consumer forum for our rights by giving appeals to proof our point. We also thinking it cool to carry shopping bags pay for them but in my opinion we should not encourage such brands to use us for their own benefits.