I have been charged more than MRP by pizza Express

Sir i have purchased water bottle from PizzaExpress and was surprised to see the manager charged me 99 Rupee + taxes on water bottle instead of its MRP 50 Rupee by PIZZAEXPRESS (Gourmet Investment Pvt. Ltd) on 24th April 2016 at 8.44 pm under chk 5721 image of bill attached...... kindly look into the matter as our law didn't allow to charge more than MRP.

The Law On MRP
A 1972 Supreme Court order makes MRP applicable to retail goods. Also, The Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976, mandate that the price be printed on the package.

According to Section 39 of the Act – No person shall:
(a) make, manufacture, pack, sell, or cause to be packed or sold; or

(b) distribute, deliver, or cause to be distributed or delivered; or

(c) offer, expose or possess for sale, any commodity in packaged form to which this Part applies unless such package bears thereon or a label securely attached thereto a definite, plain and conspicuous declaration, as prescribed, of –

(i) the identity of the commodity in the package; (ii) the net quantity, in terms of the standard unit of weight or measure, or the commodity in the package; (iii) where the commodity is packaged or sold by number, the accurate number of the commodity contained in the package; (iv) the Unit sale price of the package; (v) the sale price of the package.”

ARBITRARY PRICING IS UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICE
Earlier, in another case, the Maharashtra State Commission held Kamat Hotels and Dhariwal Industries guilty of overcharging. A case was filed when the complainant, who had purchased a one-litre bottle of Oxyrich water, labelled ‘specially packed for Kamat Hotels’, with an MRP of Rs 25.

In the market, the same bottle had an MRP of Rs 15. The Raigad District Forum ruled in favour of the consumer. Both Kamat Hotels and Dhariwal Industries appealed against the order.

The state commission observed that there was no difference in terms of the quality, purity, quantity, etc., between the packed drinking water sold at Kamat Hotels and at other places; the only difference was it was packed specially for Kamat Hotels.

Thus, there was no qualitative or quantitative difference which would justify the differential pricing. The labelling of the price was merely in accordance with an agreement between the hotel and the manufacturer.

The commission maintained that overcharging by ‘a private entity’ in this manner was unconscionable. Though it didn’t qualify as an offence under the Packaged Commodities Rules, discriminatory pricing to exploit consumers was an unfair trade practice.

There can’t be any justification for ‘uncontrolled’ and ‘arbitrary’ overcharging.

With inputs from Prerna Pandey


When someone charges you beyond MRP, you could approach a consumer court. There’s a precedent of a vendor fined Rs 50 lakh for charging Rs 75 more on an energy drink, writes Gajanan Khergamker

In May 2013, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) gave a landmark judgement when it levied a fine of Rs 50 lakh on a vendor who charged a customer Rs 75 more than the MRP on an energy drink.


I again request you to please refund the excess amount charged + the compensation for harassing me publically...