• Dr. Vijay V. Muradande

The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 which was once enacted to provide timely relief to consumers affected with deflective products and deficient services, apart from providing both legal as well as institutional framework for protection of consumers' rights came under criticism for being ineffective on certain fronts. On the other hand, increase in the cases of unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements necessitated changes to the law. Over the years, new consumer protection laws were needed owing to the drastic change in the manner market functions. There is rise in international trade, global supply chains and rapid development of e-commerce. Further, India has also witnessed the backlog of pending cases in the consumer courts. The new market set-up has witnessed mis-leading advertisements, and a special check was needed on direct selling and multi-level marketing. The new Consumer Protection Act, 2019 aims to benefit society at large. The New Act has brought in some major changes and provides for more protection to the consumers in parimateria to the earlier 1986 Act which can be seen from the comprehensive definitions provided under Section 2 of the New Act and other new sections added therein. Hence, the new Consumer Protection Act, 2019 aims to bring in stringent measures so as to effectively protect the consumers. New Act, for the first time provides for remedies that are ‘criminal’ in nature by way of criminalizing few wrongs. This paper is an attempt to assess these criminalizing provisions in general and more specifically from criminalization perspective. It also explores the scope and ambit of provisions protecting the rights of Consumer. Keywords: Consumer, Criminal Liability, Advertisements, Unfair Trade Practice, Product Liability.

"Consumer Protection Act, 2019: It’s Efficacy in a Digital Era", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 5, page no.j465-j476, May-2025, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2505A44.pdf

"Consumer Protection Act, 2019: It’s Efficacy in a Digital Era", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 5, page no. ppj465-j476, May-2025, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2505A44.pdf