Chennai: The ITC Limited has been directed by a consumer court in Chennai to pay ₹1 lakh to a customer, who found one biscuit less in the pocket of Sunfeast Marie Light against the number advertised.
A Chennai-based resident, P Dillibabu, had dragged the ITC Limited to the court, after he found that the packet of Sunfeast Marie Light contained one biscuit less than those advertised on the wrapper. He bought a bunch of the biscuits to feed the stray dogs. The wrapper claimed that there were 16 biscuits inside, but in reality the pack had 15 biscuits only.
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Reports said that Dillibabu’s attempt to seek clarification from both his local store and ITC yielded unsatisfactory responses. Frustrated by the lack of resolution, he took the matter to a consumer court, highlighting that each biscuit cost 75 paise. In his complaint, he emphasized that ITC produces a staggering 50 lakh packets of biscuits every day, implying that the company might be potentially deceiving consumers by ₹29 lakh on a daily basis.
ITC argued that biscuits are typically sold by weight rather than by quantity, with each Sunfeast Marie Light packet indicating a net weight of 76 grams. However, the court’s investigation revealed that packets containing 15 biscuits actually weighed only 74 grams.
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The legal battle escalated as ITC contended that the Legal Metrology Rules of 2011 allowed for a maximum discrepancy of 4.5 grams in pre-packaged goods. However, the court dismissed this explanation, asserting that such exemptions were intended for volatile products, not biscuits, which do not experience weight loss over time.
The court also rejected ITC’s claims that biscuits were sold based on weight, not quantity, pointing out that the packaging clearly mentioned the presence of 16 biscuits.
