In another decision by the New Delhi Consumer Court, Maruti has been slapped with a fine of Rs one lakh. for false claims as to fuel efficiency of Zen Card Model through advertisements in 2004.
The consumer alleged that Maruti in its advertisement in a newspaper had claimed a fuel efficiency of 16.7 km per litre for its Zen cars, relying on which the purchase decision was made by the complainant in 2005. But the car gave a mileage of 10.2 km per litre only which did not improve over the years even.
Hon’ble president C.K. Chaturvedi and bench said MUL had “adopted the mileage (in the advertisement) to its advantage without a corresponding clear information to consumers that this is not vouchsafed by Maruti itself.
Such advertisements enhance sales enormously by inducing consumer without corresponding benefits. In our view opposite party MUL explained Auto Car Sales data to exploit consumers and is guilty of unfair trade practice.
“We award a compensation of Rs 1,00,000 to complainant (Sharma) for this unfair trade practice and direct Maruti Suzuki to do its own authentic fuel efficiency test and state margin of error, in future advertisements, where it claims fuel efficiency per kilometer of a particular model of car,” the bench also comprising member S R Chaudhary said.
source: http://www.business-standard.com/generalnews/news/mul-to-pay-rs-1-l-for-wrong-fuel-efficiency-advertisement/47196/