IOF / import ban a consumers right denied

[nagarifle]

for some time i have been thinking about making a complaint to the Ministry of Consumer affairs.
http://www.fcamin.nic.in/index.asp

regarding IOF products and banned on imports, many will tell me that it won't do any good.
fine, have you tried it? no ? then how can you say so, that it will not do any good?

the latest department of consumer affairs, info says that for better quality wider choices and more affordable prices competition is the key.

so why not test them on it? do your bit and put a complaint,

[diskaon]

MRTP???

[goodboy_mentor]

I support your idea but before we start filing complaints, we have to be very specific and clever in what we say. Little subtle differences can mean a lot of differences in interpretation of the law. Every word has a meaning. In the eyes of law nobody has "banned" import of firearms, rather firearms are merely on the "restricted" list of EXIM policy. Therefore we should pursue our strategy accordingly.

Consumer Protection Act is applicable to IOF in case where it is selling non commercial products. We cannot make blanket and sweeping allegations against IOF since as per their website they have all the quality control measures, systems, accreditation, awards in place! We have to come up with specific cases of lack of quality. It means actual consumers have to file complaints who have received defective products from them.

Or we have to find common practices like, we are not allowed to choose and test firearms before we buy, there is waiting period etc. Then find out which Sections of The Consumer Protection Act are getting violated and why do you think so? Let us discuss this first before making formal complaints.

As far as MRTP is concerned, with the coming into effect of The Competition Act, 2002, most of the provisions of MRTP Act have ceased to exist and accordingly Competition Commission of India and the Competition Appellate Tribunal have been established. Details are available at http://www.cci.gov.in/index.php Let us read The Competition Act, 2002 and find out if a valid complaint can be filed against the concerned Government Ministry/s for placing firearms in restricted list of EXIM Policy and causing lack of competition to IOF.

[nagarifle]

GBM, i agree with you, what if quilt y control is defact as some of their prodcts looks like they are made by road side welder?

[goodboy_mentor]

How do we prove lack of quality control on a large scale? On the contrary on papers they have all the quality control measures and awards to support their claims.

What about reading The Competition Act, 2002 and find out if a complaint can be filed against the concerned Government Ministry/s for placing firearms in restricted list of EXIM Policy and causing lack of competition to IOF, which results in high priced and poor quality products.

[eternalme]

cheers naga and good boy !

[spin_drift]

Firstly, I am not a lawyer, but anyway here are my two cents.
While going through the faqs for the cci http://www.competition-commission-india.nic.in/faq.htm i came across this particular point.


What are the objectives of the Competition Act?
The objectives of the Competition Act are to prevent anti-competitive practices, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of the consumers and ensure freedom of trade.

So i think if we can prove that the restriction placed on importing firearms (at least for NPB) does not allow us the "freedom of trade" then we could perhaps get something good out of it.

[goodboy_mentor]

I have not gone through the Competition Act. I will be reading it shortly and would request everyone to carefully read it, before making any complaint. We should try to gather as many points as possible, so that if one point gets rejected, other points are there. Since every word and sentence in complaint carries meaning, it would be better if we discuss the logic and reasoning of the complaint here, rather than rushing to file the complaint and then getting it rejected.

Whatever is my understanding till now, after reading only The Objectives of the Competition Act as mentioned by spin_drift, if any person has been issued a firearm license as per law, he is anyways going to buy the type of firearm as allowed on the license. It does not matter to the law whether he is buying from IOF or buying from some other manufacturer or importing it. Then where is the problem? The problem is that putting firearms on the restricted list of EXIM policy is causing anti-competitive practices, causing lack of promotion and sustaining competition, causing lack of protection of the interests of the consumers and causing lack of freedom of trade. Hence this Act of Parliament(Competition Act) is getting undermined.