E-commerce to be a major factor in changes proposed to Consumer Protection Act

There are some major changes proposed in the Consumer Protection Act (COPRA) to make it easy and user friendly, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said in Aurangabad.

"The COPRA of 1986 had many flaws and was not viable for the era of e-commerce and hence it required tremendous changes," the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution told reporters here.

He said the proposed bill had been with (the) standing committee and soon it would be given green signal as nothing is "controversial" in the proposed amendments.

"Increasing the power of district consumer forums (to slap fines) to one crore from 20 lakh and that of state to 10 crore from one crore are also included," he added.

According to the Minister, no stone is left unturned to give protection to consumers. Paswan said during the UPA regime the Food Security Act was implemented in only 11 states but now that number had increased and soon it would be implemented in all the states.