ITC Limited has been asked to pay a customer Rs 1 lakh for packing one biscuit less than advertised in a packet of Sunfeast Marie Light. The case of the missing biscuits was highlighted when a resident of Chennai, P Dellibabu, bought a packet of ITC’s Sunfeast Marie Light biscuits to feed stray dogs. The customer noticed that although the packaging mentioned 16 biscuits, there were only 15 biscuits inside the pack.
Dellibabu approached his local store as well as ITC for an explanation but did not get a satisfactory response, as per the information of Times of India.
He filed a complaint in a consumer court, noting that each biscuit cost 75 paise. In his complaint, he explained that ITC manufactures 50 lakh packets of biscuits everyday. Going by these numbers, the company is defrauding customers of Rs 29 lakh per day.
The ITC argued that biscuits are sold by weight and not by number. The net weight mentioned in each packet of Sunfeast Marie Light is 76 grams. However, the court observed that each package of 15 biscuits weighed only 74 grams.
The ITC then argued that the statutory measurement rules of 2011 allowed a maximum of 4.5 grams of discrimination in pre-packaged products. However, the court rejected the interpretation that such an exemption is only valid for volatile products. The rule does not apply to biscuits as they do not lose weight over time.
Further, the argument that biscuits were sold by weight and not by number was also rejected as ITC mentioned 16 biscuits in the wrapper.
The FMCG giant was ordered on August 29 to pay Dellibabu Rs 1 lakh as compensation for unfair trade practices. The sale of that particular batch of biscuits has also been ordered to stop.
