NCDRC dismisses Cloudtail's appeal against CCPA order on pressure cooker sales

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has dismissed an appeal filed by Cloudtail India Pvt Ltd challenging the order passed by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA).

The dismissal was with regard to the violation of the rights of consumers by the online seller for sale of domestic pressure cookers to consumers in violation of mandatory BIS standards.

In its order, CCPA had directed the company to recall the 1,033 units of domestic pressure cookers sold by it to consumers and reimburse the prices of the recalled pressure cookers to consumers and submit a compliance report within 45 days. The company was also directed to pay a penalty of ₹1 lakh for the sale of pressure cookers in violation of Quality Control Order (QCO) and violating the rights of consumers.

Cloudtail India is the seller of pressure cookers namely "Amazon Basics Stainless Steel Outer Lid Pressure Cooker, 4 L" which does not give pressure alert by whistle, says the CCPA. The pressure cooker was being offered for sale to consumers on the Amazon e-commerce platform.

As per the QCO which came into force on February 1, 2021, domestic pressure cookers are mandated to conform to Indian Standard (IS) 2347: 2017 and bear the standard mark under a licence from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as per Scheme-I of Schedule II of Bureau of Indian Standard (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018.

"Domestic pressure cookers are among the most commonly used everyday items in households, and are present in the immediate vicinity of family members. Therefore, a domestic pressure cooker, which violates the mandatory requirements of the QCO can prove to be extremely fatal and dangerous for the life and safety of consumers and public at large," says the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

In the present case, Cloudtail was observed to be selling domestic pressure cookers to consumers without conforming to the prescribed mandatory standards and without the standard (ISI) mark under the license from the BIS. The non-certified pressure cooker was being sold by Cloudtail to consumers in India even after the QCO came into force.

Cloudtail had submitted in its reply to CCPA that after the QCO came into force, it had suspended the import of the pressure cookers. It was observed by CCPA that though import was suspended, the company had not stopped the sale of such pressure cookers to consumers.

"In fact, this submission evidently indicated that despite being aware of the QCO, the company was still selling such pressure cookers to consumers at large," the CCPA says.

The order passed by CCPA was challenged by Cloudtail in its appeal before the NCDRC. The appeal was dismissed by the NCDRC today.

In August last year, the CCPA had also penalised e-commerce major Flipkart over sale of domestic pressure cookers of sub-standard quality. The consumer rights authority has ordered the company to recall the same, and pay a penalty of ₹1 lakh for allowing sale of such pressure cookers on its platform and violating rights of consumers.