The document provides an overview of the Consumer Rights Protection Act of 2009 in Bangladesh. It discusses key aspects of the Act including its establishment, definitions of terms, organizational structure, offenses and punishments. The Act aims to protect consumer rights and prevent violations. It established bodies like the Consumer Rights Protection Council and Department to oversee enforcement. Effective implementation of this law and other relevant acts could help ensure Bangladeshi consumers receive quality products and services. However, challenges remain like a lack of awareness, separate consumer courts and proper authorities to pursue legal action.

1. Assignment on Consumer Rights
Protection Act 2009
SUDMITED TO
MD:RIADUZZAMAN
Consumer Protection Law
Department of Law
SUDMITED BY
MD:RAKIBUL ISLAM
Batch:14th
Department of Law

2. INTRODUCTION
The Consumer Right Protection Act was passed by the
parliament and obtained assent of the president on April 05,
2009 and its demand is the Consumers of Bangladesh. So it is
essential to understand what consumer is. Consumer is a person
who consumes or uses any commodity or service available to
him either from natural resources of through a market for final
consumption. It gives Protection to the Consumers against the
violation of their right and being injured by the unfair trade
practices of the seller or service provider. It does not mean that
consumer right has not protected before Act was passed. People
of Bangladesh had been protected try various Acts such as -
Constitution of Bangladesh, Sale of Goods Act, Specific Relief
Act, Dung Control Ordinance, Pure Food Ordinance, Penal
Code etc. But rights of the Consumers were not well protected
by those Acts. After the enactment, people got a written or
existing Act and protected under this Act.
Consumers:
According to the law and act, a person is required to perform
certain conditions to be regarded as a consumer. Basically, the
persons who use or consume products and services are known as
consumers. Another way to explain- buyer, who is the final
customers of products and services, is known as consumer.
Under Consumer Right Protection Act, 2009 (CRPA, 2009) – “a
person who buys goods to earn a livelihood by „self-
employment‟ (through in a commercial scale) also falls within

3. the definition of a consumer. Before the enactment, a set of
consumer rights were mentioned in different Laws in a
fragmented way. In Bangladesh, consumers can be divided into
two types: (i) service consumer and (ii) product consumer.
Section-2 (19) of the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009 in
Bangladesh states the definition of consumer as follows:
“Consumer” means any person who:
(a) Except for the purpose of resale and commercial purpose-
i) purchases any product by payment of a price or promise to
pay off a price;
ii) Purchases any product by partly paid and partly promised; or
iii) Purchases any product with the promise of paying price in
extended term or by installments;
(a) With the consent of the purchaser
(b) Uses the product purchased under clause;
(c) Who, after purchasing a product, uses it commercially for the
purpose of making a living by self-employed
(d) Any person who:
(i) Hires or receives otherwise any service by payment or
promises to pay the price;
ii) Hires or receives otherwise any service by part payment or
promises to pay partly the price.

4. (iii) Hires or receives otherwise any service by paying the price
in an extended term or by installments.
(d) With the consent
(e) Any person who consumes the service received under clause
The simplest way to explain consumers- consumers are those
people on persons who buy or use or obtain or hire a permission
to use any kinds products or services by offering a price, prompt
or due or in installments.
OVERVIEW
The Consumer Right Protection Act (later termed as CRPA),
2009 of Bangladesh was passed by the Parliament and obtained
assents of the President on 5th April, 2009 and shall come into
force at once [sec-1(2)].The Act provides for the protection of
consumer rights and for prevention of acts against consumer
right and interest and other relevant issues. The Consumer
Protection Act 2009 is organized into 7 chapters and a total of
82 sections. The Act mainly deals with the obligations of
"economic operators" and product safety. It enjoins state organs
to punish the offenses of economic operators who violate
consumer rights and interests. It provides for various actions to
be taken by the respective ministries against the production of
products or services that are likely to induce grave or imminent
dangers. The Act also sets out comprehensive procedures to be
followed by inspection agents to ensure the quality and safety of
products (goods and services). It also allows for the

5. establishment of a specialized institution to be in charge of fraud
repression and inspections of imported and exported goods.
(Chapter 1) deals with definition such as complainant,
consumer, medicine, punishment, Food product, council, Rules
etc and it deals with the establishment of council (chapter 2).
Department and Director General (chapter 3), offence and
punishment (chapter 4), trial (chapter 5), civil proceedings and
remedies (chapter 6) and miscellaneous (chapter 7).
In section 2(20) - it states some name of activities which is
against consumer's rights such as- to sale at a higher price, to
sale any adulterer medicine or product, to sell any product which
has mixture of any product, deceiving people by false or untrue
advertisements, not to supply goods properly in exchange of
price, to make counterfeit products, to sale date expired products
and so on.
In section 2(22) - it provides for a definition of services.
In section 5- it is said that "The Consumer Right Protection
Council" shall be established and it consists of 29 members. The
Tenure of membership, Meeting and Function of the council
shall be enacted.
In section 10- it provides about the Establishment of District
Committee for the Protection of Consumer Right.
In chapter 3- Sections from (18-36) deal with Establishment of
a Department, Director General and Powers and functions of
the Director General and so on.

6. In chapter 4- Sections from (37-56) deal with punishment for
the various acts against consumer's rights and interests and
violation of the provisions of this act.
In chapter 5- Sections from (57-65) deal with the trial.
In chapter 6- Sections from (66-68) deal with the civil
proceedings and remedy.
In chapter 7- Section from (68-82) deal with the miscellaneous.
Chapter 7 also deals with different types of miscellaneous
provisions such as- power of District Magistrate (sec-69),
Administrative action taken by Department (sec-70), monitoring
private health and medicine service (sec-73) etc. Under this
chapter some exemption are also allowed for some offenses.
The Consumer Protection Law enforce to provide
consumers Best Quality of Services in Bangladesh:
Now-a-days, consumer rights include more sectors like banking,
telecommunication etc. In Bangladesh a lot of laws (around 61
laws, list given below) are prevailing on consumer rights that
aim to ensure safety products and security in service. In negative
sense, a list of consumer rights can be found from the
explanation of the term “Acts against consumer rights”.
Section 2 (20) of the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009
states that “Acts against consumer rights mean:
a) Selling or offering to sale at a price higher than the price
prescribed by any law or Rule for any product, medicine or
service;

7. b) Knowingly selling or offering to sale any adulteries product
or medicine;
c) Selling or offering to sale any product which has mixture of
any object that is dangerously harmful for human health and
mixture of such object with food is prohibited by any Act or
Rule;
d) Deceiving people in general by false and untrue
advertisement with the purpose of selling any product or service.
e) Not to supply properly the product or service as promised in
exchange price;
f) To sale or supply in a weight lesser than that has been
promised at the time of such sale or supply;
g) The scale or instruments of weighing using for sale or supply
of any product of a business establishment showing over weight
that in actual weight;
h) Using less than in promised weight in time of sale or supply
of a product;
i) The using ribbon for measuring length in any business
establishment showing more length than in actual size;
j) To make or manufacture any counterfeit product or medicine;
k) To sale or offer to sale any date expire product or medicine;
l) Commission of any act which is dangerous to the life or safety
of the service consumer that is prohibited under any Act or Rule;

8. If we are able to prevent these above mentioned “acts against
consumer rights” then the protection of consumers‟ rights will
be done automatically.
The Bangladeshi laws provides for the establishments of
different organizations to protect the rights of the consumers
including various Courts or Tribunals such as-
(i) Consumer Rights Protection Department;
(ii) National Consumer Rights Protection Council;
(iii) Special Tribunal;
(iv) Mobile Court (can work/ function under various Laws; It
may be constituted by a special executive order);
(v) Drug Court;
(vi) Food Special Court;
(vii) Ordinary Criminal Courts;
(viii) Ordinary Civil Courts;
(ix) Marine Courts;
(x) BSTI;
(xi) Claims Tribunal etc
There are also several laws available if those are enforced
effectively then the consumer will get best quality of services
from their desired products. Such as-

9. 1. The Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009;
2. Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute Ordinance (BSTI),
1985;
3. The Customs Act, 1969;
4. The Drug Control Ordinance, 1982;
5. The Fish and Fish Products Ordinance, 1983;
6. The Pure Food Ordinance, 1959;
7. The Trade marks Act, 2009;
8. The sale of goods Act, 1930;
9. The Control of Essential Commodities Act, 1956;
10. The Medical and Dental Council Act, 1980;
11. The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Act,
2003;
12. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Act, 2001;
13. The Right to Information Act, 2009;
14. The Food (Special Courts) Act, 1956;
15. The Mobile Court Ordinance, 2007 (now repealed);
16. The Iodine Deficiency Disorders Prevention Act,
1989;
17. The Standards of Weights and Measures Ordinance
(Amendment) Act,2001;
18. The Import of Goods (Price Equalization Surcharge)
Act, 1967; etc.
Reasons behind to be cheated as a Consumer in
Bangladesh:
Consumers of our country, most of the time, are not aware of the
products completely those they are buying. As a result they get

10. cheated. Consumers are not aware of their rights at all. If the
consumer is wise during purchase / shopping, then they need not
to return home with the worry that they may have been cheated.
Some of the factors those help producers to do cheating with the
consumers are discussed below-
Lack of awareness:
Mass people of Bangladesh are unaware of their rights as a
consumer. They do not know if the sellers cheat them, what they
should do or where they should go. The reason behind is that
consumers right is still a comparatively new concept to the
people of Bangladesh.
Illiteracy:
Most of the people in Bangladesh do not know about the
existence of their rights as consumer. One of the main reasons
for this is the lack of basic education. They cannot think up to
the level that they can have such rights which would give them
protection against adulteration of food, medicine etc. and the
right to get proper service for which they are paying.
Economic Condition:
We cannot avoid thinking of the economic condition which
does not provide the atmosphere fit for consumers who are
careful and demand quality.
Compromising Attitude:

11. Sometimes we do compromise with the quality of goods bought
because of our financial limitation. If we are incapable of paying
the accurate price for the goods we buy, we cannot expect a high
standard of quality for the same.
These are the small fractions of problem related to the
consumers. However, there are other problems too. For example,
in Bangladesh there is no separate court for consumers‟ rights.
Also the consumers lack proper authority to go to the court to
bring action against those who violate the consumers‟ rights.
Therefore, the consumers need to rely upon the government
officials concerned to bring any effective action against the
alleged parties. Those alleged parties are also taking advantage
of this vague situation. The corrupt businessmen tend to
establish a good relationship with corrupt government officials
who might help them to cheat and exploit the innocent
consumers. Moreover, the BSTI (Bangladesh Standards and
Testing Institute) is beset with lots of problems, like it does not
have modern equipment and facilities for testing of many
products. Also, the general consumers very often question the
efficiency and integrity of the officials in the BSTI.
Conclusion:
Laws are accumulation of some rules and regulations by
sovereign authority. But success of laws depends on who has the
power of enforcing them. Appropriate enforcement of a law can
make people do the right thing. So, if certain people, those have

12. the power, enforce consumer right protection law in a right
manner, strong-handed, and effectively then all the people of the
country will get benefited. They will get the quality products
and services at cheap price because of the market competition.
As a result, we have to import fewer products from the other
countries at a high cost we may also export those product
instead of importing. So, economy of the country will boost up
and it run properly. For the betterment of the whole society, now
it is important to enforce the consumer protection law properly
and this country a better place to live.