The following existing laws for consumer protection are practicing in Bangladesh.
i) The Essential Commodity Act, 1956: It has given power to the government to control the production, distribution, preservation, business, etc. of certain essential commodities for which a license or permit is a must.
ii) The Pure Food Ordinance, 1959: The ordinance empowers the government to maintain the quality of food such as flour, oil, ghee etc. The department of public health has been entrusted with the duty of inspection and examination of the quality of foodstuff under the Pure Food Ordinance, 1959. This ordinance also prohibits persons with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, from involvement in manufacturing or preparation of such food items. After the revision of this ordinance, it came into force as “the Bangladesh Pure Food (Amendment) Act, 2004”. It has been proffered to charter a National Food Safety Council which would be headed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well as to constitute food courts under this act.
iii) The Price and Distribution of Essential Commodity Ordinance, 1970: The act was enacted to ensure the right price so that the importers, producers and the businessmen may not be able to earn unjust profit. Under this law, the price of commodity should be attached to them and the legal list of price should be hanged in an open place and receipt of sale of goods must be delivered to the buyer.
iv) The Drug Control Ordinance, 1982: The law empowered the government to establish control over manufacture, import, distribution and sale of drugs. This regulation makes provisions for constituting a Drugs Control Committee, which is known as Drug Administration. No drug can be manufactured for sale or be imported or distributed. In case of manufacturing of drugs, the firms are advised to follow the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).
v) The Breast Milk Substitute (Regulation of Marketing) Ordinance, 1984: The enactment states that nobody is allowed to promote the use of any breast milk substitute or give any impression that breast milk substitute is better than breast feeding. That will amount to an office. The ordinance has also made it mandatory to inscribe that “there is no substitute to breast- feeding” on the package of the substitute.
vi) The Tobacco Goods Marketing (Control) Act, 1988: On October 27, 1988 Bangladesh had connected anti smoking campaign. The aim of such campaign was to reduce the use of tobacco. Sellers and manufactures are instructed to give warning on the tobacco packet, such as “Smoking is injurious to health.” Without this caution they are not allowed to display or advertise any tobacco product.
vii) The Special Powers Act, 1974: The act provides for more severe penalties for false advertisement, black-marketing, smuggling and adulteration of foods, drinks, drugs or cosmetics.
viii) The Dangerous Drug Act, 1930: The act empowered government to put restrictions on cultivation of cocoa- plant, manufacture and possession of opium, cultivation of poppy, etc.
ix) The Trade Marks Act, 1940: It provides that all manufactured commodity should have a trademark, which will distinguish it from other commodities of the same nature and the consumers will get the liberty to choose their own brand. The objective of this act is to give protection to the original trademark against unauthorized use of his trademark by his competitors.
x) The Standard of Weights and Measures Ordinance, 1982: It provides that the establishment of standards of weights and measure shall be based on metric system and units of measurement and would be known in the country as System International (SI) units.
xi) The Food Grain Supply Ordinance, 1956: The act endows notable expedients for prevention of prejudicial pursuits relating to the storage, transshipment, movement, supply and distribution of food grains.
xii) The Penal Code, 1860: The Ordinance was passed to protect the adulteration of foods and drinks, selling of noxious food and drinks, adulteration of drugs or medical preparation. It provides punishable offences for selling of such adulterated drugs or medical preparation. Besides of these, using false trademark and counterfeiting trademark or brand name are described as punishable offences.
xiii) The Sale of Goods Act, 1930: The act provides contract, condition and warranties, transfer of property, title of property, rights and duties of buyers and sellers, right of unpaid sellers against the goods stoppage in transit, etc.
xiv) The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution Ordinance, 1985: Under this ordinance, the government established the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) for standardization, testing, metrology, quality control, grading and marketing of goods. The main tasks of commodities, materials, whether for local consumption, export and import. At present BSTI is functioning as “Policy on Labeling” under BSTI Act (Amendment), 2003.
xv) The Essential Commodity Act, 1990: The law clinches stable position of goods and maintaining or measuring supply of essential commodities. The law also commands the Essential Commodity Act including wide-ranging activities such as storage, transport, distribution, disposal, acquiring, consumption of indispensable materials.
xvi) Fish and Fish Product Rules, 1997: The rules protect fish and fish product with inspection and control. Then the rules are basically meant to develop quality improvement to promote the export of trade.
Regards,
Nahid Afreen
Assistant Professor
Law, DIU
