Chennai: ITC asked to fork out Rs 1 lakh for packing one biscuit less in a pack, says report

Packing one biscuit less in a packet of 16 biscuits proved to be a costly affair for FMCG giant ITC Ltd, said a report.

A Chennai-based consumer forum directed ITC Limited to pay Rs 1 lakh for packing one biscuit less in a 16-biscuit "Sun Feast Marie Light" pack after a consumer filed a case against the firm regarding the issue, reported Times of India.

P Dillibabu of MMDA Mathur, a resident of Chennai, purchased two dozen ‘Sun Feast Marie Light’ biscuits in Manalito to feed stray animals in December 2021. When he opened the packet, he was surprised that there were only 15 biscuits instead of 16, and when he went back to the store for an explanation, they did not give him a proper response. Even when he approached ITC, there was no explanation regarding one missing biscuit, said the report.

In his filed complaint, he pointed out that the cost of each biscuit is 75 paise and ITC Ltd manufactures close to 50 lakh packets in a day, and back-of-the-envelope calculations would suggest that the company cheated the public of over Rs 29 lakh every day.

The company responded that the mentioned product was sold based only on the weight and not on the number of biscuits packed in one pack. The label stated that the net weight of all the packed biscuits was 76 grams.

However, when the commission examined it, they found out that all unwrapped biscuit packets, which contain 15 biscuits, came out to be only 74 grams. ITC's counsel further said that the Legal Metrology Rules of 2011 allowed a maximum permissible error of 4.5 grams for pre-packaged commodities.

The forum rejected the ITC argument and said such exemptions were applicable only to products volatile in nature and not to items like biscuits, which can't lose weight over time.

They also rejected the company’s defence that the product was sold not in terms of "numbers" but of "weight" because the pack of the biscuits highlighted the number of biscuits packed in it. Hence, on August 29, the consumer forum directed ITC to not only pay the compensation of Rs 1 lakh to Dillibabu but also directed the company to discontinue sales of the particular batch of biscuits.