A consumer court has ordered ITC Limited, one of India's largest conglomerates, to pay a consumer Rs 1 lakh in compensation after he claimed that he discovered just 15 biscuits in a packet that was supposed to have 16.
P. Dillibabu, the Chennai-based customer who filed a complaint, also stated the company was cheating consumers of Rs 29 lakh if every pack had one less biscuit, according to a back-of-the-envelope calculation.
While ITC argued the biscuit packets are packed by weight and not the number of pieces, the consumer court found the Sunfeast Marie Light packet to be of 74 grams. The biscuit maker claims the weight to be 76 grams. However, the weight argument was rejected as ITC claimed 16 pieces on the packet.
The FMCG giant was ordered to pay Dillibabu Rs 1 lakh in restitution for unfair trade practices on August 29. It has also been ordered to stop selling that specific batch of biscuits.
