Consumer body orders free parking in Chennai mall
The order, however, will come into effect only after the date of its receipt by the mall. The mall has also been directed to pay the complainant Rs 12,000 as compensation for unfair trade practices.
Chennai VR mall (Photo: X)
CHENNAI: The Chennai North District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has instructed the VR Mall here not to collect parking fee. The directive comes in response to a complaint raised by a Chennai resident.
The order, however, will come into effect only after the date of its receipt by the mall. The mall has also been directed to pay the complainant Rs 12,000 as compensation for unfair trade practices.
After the mall charged him Rs 80 for parking, the complainant V Arun Kumar raised a complaint alleging deficiency of services and unfair trade practice – levying parking charges inside the mall – under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
According to his complaint, Arun visited the VR mall on April 26, 2023, and parked his two-wheeler in their parking lot. He was charged Rs 80 toward the parking fee for one hour and 57 minutes. Arun questioned the parking attendant about charging visitors for parking when it was mandatory on their part to provide enough parking facilities to visitors and customers.
His complaint further noted that the mall had resorted to unfair practice by charging a huge sum of Rs 50 for the first one hour of parking. It was alleged that the parking staff threatened and compelled Arun into paying the fee.
The mall cannot charge consumers for using the facilities provided, and by doing so, they resorted to unfair trade practice and deficiency in services under the Act.
The consumer commission analysed similar cases like Ruchi Malls Pvt Ltd vs State of Gujarat, Pauly Vadakkan vs Lulu international shopping mall Kochi, and other judgments.
The consumer commission headed by the president D Gopinath and members V Ramamurthy and Kavitha Kannan directed the mall to discontinue and not to repeat the unfair trade practice of imposing parking charges immediately from the date of the receipt of the order.
The mall is directed to pay Rs 10,000 to Arun as compensation, inclusive of parking charges paid, the mental agony, pain and suffering he endured as a result of unfair trade practices, besides a Rs 2000 toward litigation costs.
