AUTHOR DETAILS
Ramnika Singla
2ndYear LLB
Mumbai University

ABSTRACT
The Evolution of the Market Economy Right from the Laissez Faire Economy to the modern-day day markets of the Welfare United States revolves across the simple Entity of the Entire universe of Market, i.e, the Consumer. He is the primary basis around which the entire theories of marketplace is conceived.
Consumer safety is a crucial element of any marketplace economic machine, making sure that clients are handled pretty, furnished with excellent products and services, and compensated for any damage due to defects or fraud. In India, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (CPA 1986) end up a landmark regulation geared toward protective patron rights and offering mechanisms for dispute decision. However, with the upward thrust of globalization, digital trade, and extra complex consumer disputes, the CPA 1986 started to expose its obstacles. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (CPA 2019) was added as a modernized version of the 1986 Act, addressing current troubles collectively with e-trade, deceptive classified ads, and skip-border alternate.
This paper offers an extensive comparative evaluation of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, and the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, specializing in their key provisions, legislative purpose, adjustments in patron rights, criticism redressal mechanisms, and real-worldwide disturbing conditions in their implementation. The evaluation also highlights the sensible implications of those laws in addressing patron issues in state-of-the-art digital economic gadget.

INTRODUCTION
The Evolution of the Market Economy Right from the Laissez Faire Economy to the current day markets of the Welfare country revolves across the number one Entity of the Entire universe of Market, i.E, the Consumer. He is the number one basis around which the entire theories of market is conceived.
Consumers are at the coronary heart of any market-driven financial gadget. Their choices, shopping behaviour, and needs right away affect manufacturing, pricing, advertising, and preferred economic sports. Without customers, organizations could haven’t any market for their items and services, and economic structures might stop to function efficiently. The significance of clients within the market may be explored thru various dimensions, from driving demand to promoting opposition and innovation. Below are key elements that spotlight the importance of customers in the marketplace.
In the context of rapid market enlargement, technological advances, and evolving trade practices, customer safety legal pointers play a crucial position in safeguarding purchasers from unfair practices. India’s Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was the primary comprehensive rules geared toward shielding customers from exploitation. This Act created a dialogue board-primarily based definitely form for complaint redressal and empowered clients with numerous important rights, inclusive of the proper to protection, statistics, and redressal.
However, the market within the Nineteen Eighties changed into vastly distinct from what it’s far these days. The creation of the internet, the upward thrust of e-trade, and circulate-border trade created new worrying conditions that the 1986 Act couldn’t efficiently cope with. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 turned into brought to triumph over the ones challenges, reflecting the want to comply the felony framework to satisfy the needs of the digital age. This paper explores the evolution of client protection laws in India and compares the 2 Acts in phrases of their provisions, enforcement mechanisms, and realistic applicability in cutting-edge markets.

COMPARISON IN SECTIONS

1. DEFINITION OF CONSUMER
   The term “purchaser” is vital to the scope and applicability of the Act. A broader and greater inclusive definition ensures that a extra extensive style of people and entities are covered below the law.
   Consumer Protection Act, 1986:
   The 1986 Act defined a patron as a person who buys goods or services for personal use and not for resale or commercial enterprise functions. This confined the scope of protection, especially for individuals who offered gadgets for livelihood features, which incorporates small organizations or farmers. In such instances, customers have to find it difficult to trying to find redress for problems associated with items or offerings used in their artwork.
   Consumer Protection Act, 2019:
   The 2019 Act widened the definition of a patron to embody human beings shopping gadgets or offerings for self-employment. This covers small-scale entrepreneurs, freelancers, and individuals the usage of items like equipment, machinery, or technology for organisation or livelihood. Additionally, the 2019 Act includes virtual transactions, thereby recognizing the growing role of online purchases in daily purchaser behaviour.
   The broader definition underneath the 2019 Act presents higher protection for current purchasers engaged in severe sports, reflecting the evolving panorama of commerce.
2. CONSUMER RIGHTS
   The purchaser rights underneath these Acts are imperative to their motive of safeguarding people from exploitation and ensuring that corporations operate in a honest way.
   1986 Act:
   The 1986 Act furnished six key client rights:
3. The proper to safety
4. The right to records
5. The proper to choose
6. The right to be heard
7. The proper to looking for redressal
8. The proper to patron schooling
   While these rights were innovative at the time, they lacked the specificity needed to deal with cutting-edge problems, which includes fraud in e-trade or deceptive commercials. For instance, clients coping with on-line transactions or virtual items decided restrained recourse underneath this Act.
   2019 Act:
   The 2019 Act increased customer rights with the aid of way of consisting of provisions to address unfair trade practices in each offline and online markets. Some key additions encompass:
9. Right to honest treatment in e-alternate: Clear pointers for online systems to disclose pricing, product info, and terms of carrier.
10. Right to safety in opposition to misleading classified ads: The Act makes it easier for clients to are searching out redress for fraudulent or misleading marketing.
    Three. Right to well-timed decision: The 2019 Act emphasizes quicker redressal of grievances, mainly inside the context of digital transactions.
    The 2019 Act for this reason affords extra advantageous patron protection, addressing the modern challenges confronted by using manner of consumers inside the virtual monetary device.
11. GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM
    Effective grievance redressal mechanisms are fundamental to customer protection, as they provide consumers with a structured way to are searching out redress for grievances and preserve agencies accountable.
    1986 Act:
    The Act hooked up a three-tier device for complaint redressal:
12. District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum
13. State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
14. National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
    Consumers should file lawsuits inside the forum just like the price of the dispute. While this machine was effective for small to medium instances, the method was frequently lengthy and complex, main to extensive delays in decision.
    2019 Act:
    The 2019 Act added a greater streamlined complaint redressal approach, incorporating technological advancements to make certain accessibility and efficiency. Some wonderful modifications include:
15. Online filing of complaints: Consumers can now file lawsuits online, making it more handy, in particular for those in far off areas.
16. Introduction of mediation: The Act encourages mediation as an opportunity dispute decision mechanism, selling faster, out-of-court docket settlements.
17. Jurisdictional flexibility: Consumers can record lawsuits primarily based on their location of residence or commercial enterprise, in location of being constrained to the location of the agency.
    These modifications address the inefficiencies in the 1986 Act and make the redressal approach extra on hand, nicely timed, and client-pleasant.
18. JURISDICTON AND PECUNIARY LIMITS
    The pecuniary limits decide the economic thresholds for disputes treated through diverse client boards. These limits make sure that times are heard with the resource of the exceptional forum.
    1986 Act:
    The pecuniary limits were as follows:
19. District Forum: Up to ₹20 lakhs
20. State Commission: ₹20 lakhs to ₹1 crore
    three. National Commission: Above ₹1 crore
    These limits had been set in 1986 and did not account for inflation or the boom in transaction values through the years.
    2019 Act:
    The 2019 Act improved the pecuniary limits to reflect modern-day-day financial realities:
21. District Commission: Up to ₹1 crore
22. State Commission: ₹1 crore to ₹10 crores
23. National Commission: Above ₹10 crores
    These updated limits ensure that times involving better-value disputes are handled as it should be, easing the burden on higher-degree boards.
24. PRODUCT LIABILITY
    Product felony obligation is a vital problem of purchaser regulation, preserving manufacturers and dealers liable for faulty merchandise.
    1986 Act:
    The Act did now not have precise provisions addressing product prison obligation, leaving customers to pursue claims for my part underneath widespread tort law.
    2019 Act:
    The 2019 Act brought easy provisions for product liability, allowing purchasers to claim compensation for harm as a result of defective items or services. Under this Act, manufacturers, carrier agencies, and sellers are held answerable for any damage attributable to a defective product.
    This provision strengthens client rights through the use of presenting clean obligation for corporations.
25. CENTRAL CONSUMER PROTECTION AUTHORITY (CCPA)
    A maximum crucial improvement in the 2019 Act come to be the establishment of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA).
    1986 Act:
    No specific authority was hooked up to put in force the provisions of the Act. Enforcement relied in large part on consumer forums, which had been frequently gradual and ineffective.
    2019 Act:
    The CCPA emerge as mounted to behave as a crucial regulatory authority to ensure that purchaser rights are upheld. It has the electricity to:
26. Investigate and take movement toward unfair change practices, deceptive classified ads, and violations of purchaser rights.
27. Impose fines on companies, along with for fake advertising.
    Three. Take suo motu movements based totally totally on client court instances or marketplace surveillance.
    The advent of the CCPA strengthens client safety by using the use of proactively addressing troubles earlier than they amplify.
28. E-trade and Digital Transactions
    With the upward thrust of on-line buying, the 1986 Act have become previous because it did not address digital transactions or on-line fraud.
    1986 Act:
    There were no specific provisions to deal with e-change or online transactions, leaving clients susceptible to fraud in online marketplaces.
    2019 Act:
    The 2019 Act includes specific provisions for e-trade transactions, requiring on-line structures to ensure transparency in product facts, return policies, and the shipping device. The Act additionally mandates that e-trade platforms take duty for the excellent of services and products offered through their systems.
29. PENALTIES FOR MISLEADING ADVERTISEMENTS
    1986 Act:
    The 1986 Act did not include any provisions for effects on deceptive advertisements.
    2019 Act:
    The 2019 Act introduced intense results for fake advertisements, collectively with fines and jail phrases for advertisers and endorsers of misleading merchandise. This provision is particularly relevant in an age wherein influencer advertising and social media play a dominant function in advertising and marketing.

BACKGROUND AND LEGISLATIVE INTENT
Consumer Protection Act, 1986
The CPA 1986 aimed to defend purchasers from exploitation, offer handy dispute choice mechanisms, and create a prison framework that is probably used by ordinary citizens to clear up proceedings. Its motive turned into mainly focused on traditional items and offerings and did now not account for the adjustments in consumer behavior added on through the digital monetary device.
Consumer Protection Act, 2019
The CPA 2019, however, emerge as delivered with the purpose of addressing the stressful conditions posed via the usage of cutting-edge exchange, along with on line buying, product liability, deceptive classified ads, and flow-border transactions. It aimed to modernize the framework, making it extra applicable and effective in the present day age.

CONCLUSION
The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 laid the foundation for patron rights in India, but the fast evolution of the economic device and the virtual landscape necessitated an overhaul of the triumphing framework. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 addresses these annoying situations and affords a miles better, comprehensive, and ahead-searching tool for customer protection. While the 1986 Act stays a landmark within the facts of purchaser law in India, the 2019 Act gives a contemporary technique to the issues faced by means of way of customers inside the digital age. The effective implementation of the 2019 Act holds the functionality to seriously decorate consumer safety and contribute to constructing patron self warranty inside the market.

REFERENCES

1. Consumer Protection Act, 1986 – Official Text
2. Consumer Protection Act, 2019 – Official Text
3. Reports through the usage of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs
4. Academic papers at the evolution of customer rights in India
5. Judicial precedents on customer disputes in India