India Tobacco Company (ITC) has found itself in a fix after being ordered to pay a customer Rs 1 lakh as compensation for one less biscuit in its 16-buiscuit “Sun Feast Marie Light” packet, meaning this became the costliest biscuit ever produced by the company, which was not packed!
The situation arose when P Dillibab of MMDA Mathur in Chennai bought two dozen “Sun Feast Marie Light” packets from a retail store in Manali to feed stray animals in December 2021.
When the packets were opened, he found only 15 biscuits inside even as the wrapper mentioned that it was a 16-biscuit packet. When the customer approached the shop and later ITC for an explanation, he did not get a proper response.
Subsequently, he filed a complaint where he mentioned that the cost of one biscuit is 75 paise, meaning ITC, which produces nearly 50 lakh packets daily, duped the public of roughly over Rs 29 lakh every day.
However, in its response, the company argued that the product was sold only based on the weight and not on the number of biscuits. The advertised net weight of the biscuit packet was 76 grams, but when the commission examined it, they found that all unwrapped biscuit packets with 15 biscuits weighed at around 74 grams.
The counsel appearing for ITC argued that the Legal Metrology Rules of 2011 allowed a maximum permissible error of 4.5 grams in case of pre-packaged commodities.
However, the forum did not accept it saying that such exemptions were only applicable to products volatile in nature and not in case of biscuits which do not lose weight over time.
The wrapper highlighted the number of biscuits and hence, the argument that the product was sold not in terms of “numbers” but of “weight”, was turned down.
The consumer court on August 29 ruled ITC to not only pay Rs 1 lakh to Dillibabu as compensation for adopting unfair trade practices, but also discontinue sales of the particular batch of biscuits.
