Superhero minus cape: CCPA wants to protect Indian consumers but its hands are tied

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mumbai: When comedian Kunal Kamra began posting videos of old, dusty piled up scooters lying before Ola Electric service centres, he seemingly triggered a tidal wave of rants by Ola customers who had long given up on any redressal. Kamra’s X (formerly Twitter) post blew up with photos and videos of non-functional scooters.

Customers posted videos of being chased away from service centres by company bouncers. Someone set a service centre on fire. And while founder Bhavish Aggarwal fought with Kamra online over an October weekend, shares of Ola Electric crashed on Monday.

But, who was helping the customers? Enter: Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA). India’s newest regulator, set up in 2020 to exclusively protect consumer rights, issued a show-cause notice to Ola Electric for violating consumer rights. Two weeks later, when the company said it had successfully settled over 99% of all consumer complaints, CCPA dismissed the claims and initiated its most lethal weapon of legal enforcement: a class-action lawsuit.

All this should give customers of Ola Electric, and any other untrustworthy brand, reason to cheer. For decades, Indian customers have struggled helplessly against brands that sell them faulty, harmful, or poisonous goods, refused refunds and returns, or ran scammy ads. The only legal recourse and source of compensation is to fight a case against savvy corporate lawyers in the slow, overburdened consumer dispute courts.