Q.What is meant by 'product liability' under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019?

Product liability is entirely new to Indian consumer law under the 2019 Act, and it deliberately reaches beyond the point of final sale. …

Product liability is a concept introduced for the first time in Indian consumer law by the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, and it has no equivalent under the 1986 Act.

It refers to the responsibility of a product manufacturer, a product seller, or a product service provider to compensate a consumer for any harm caused by a defective product, or by a deficient service connected with that product. This gives a harmed consumer a direct route to compensation through a product liability action, without necessarily needing to prove there was a direct contract of sale between the injured person and the party being held responsible — for example, a consumer harmed by a defect that originated at the manufacturing stage may be able to proceed against the manufacturer even though they personally purchased the product from a retailer. …

Students sometimes describe product liability as if it were the same as the general remedy of 'compensation' available from a Commission — the distinguishing point is that it is a specific, newly introduced liability regime that c …