Maruti Suzuki India’s largest car manufacturer was not even finished with the launch event of Maruti Ciaz they were shaken by the notice of consumer affairs ministry regarding unfair trade practices. Maruti was alleged to taking pre-bookings for its sedan Ciaz without revealing the specifications of car; hence Maruti could face legal action.
The Consumer affair ministry has make up their mind after former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi said that he is getting complaints from the public about the company regarding pre-launch bookings. After hearing from the former minister, Consumer ministry has written a letter to Maruti Suzuki calling it an unfair practice and asked why they should not take action against the company.
The government is very serious about this issue because many companies do these kinds of things in order to create more buzz about their product and almost all the companies make marketing strategies about it.
According to the letter which is addressed to the chairman and managing director stated that according to consumer protection act which provides “consumer the right to be information about the quality, quantity, potency, standard, purity and price of the goods so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices”. Adding to it, ministry said, in modern days of total transparency, the manner in which sale of this new car is being promoted amounted to misleading consumers.
Maruti Suzuki reacted to Trivedi’s statement by saying that consumer had the option of referring the newspaper reviews and not booking the car. The ministry has asked the company to provide complete details of pre-launch booking program and explain why action under the consumer protection Act, 1986, such as filing a suit by the central government should not be taken.
On this whole Scenario, Mahindra & Mahindra has stated that, “The Company accepts token amount which is adjusted against the price of the car at the time of purchase. If customer wants to cancel the booking, the token amount is being refunded to the customer. Maruti will not be in trouble until the complainant proves that the practice adopt by Maruti is unfair and misleading their customers. Various car manufactures have implemented this strategy like Honda, Tata, Mahindra and Hyundai.
