Santosh Acharya of Udupi Sues Pepsi Cola and Gets a Fizzy Rs 1 Lac

Inputs from Mid Day

• Man who didn’t get promotional gift with his Pepsi, sues company and takes home a whopping compensation of Rs 1 lac
   
   
  
  Promising: The promo sticker on the Pepsi bottle
   

Bangalore / Udupi, Aug 5: If you buy a product and do not get the prize that was promised with it, do not worry.Not getting the prize could make you luckier.

A consumer who did not get the ‘Khufiya’ card with a Pepsi bottle, sued the company and was awarded Rs 1 lac as compensation by the consumer court. If he had won the prize, a maximum of Rs 2,500 is all he would have got.

In 2005, Pepsi had come up with the ‘Khufiya’ card, given along with 2-litre and 1.5-litre-bottles of Pepsi, Mirinda Orange, Mirinda Lemon, Mountain Dew and 7Up. Anybody who got a ‘Khufiya’ card was assured
a gift.

Santosh Narasimha Acharya, a resident of Udupi, had bought a bottle of Pepsi form Lalit Store and Juice Centre, Udupi. The shopkeeper did not give Santosh the ‘Khufiya’ card.

When Santosh demanded the card, the shopkeeper said that the manufacturer had not supplied the card. However, the Pepsi bottle Santosh bought had a sticker on it that read “Get your Khufiya card with this bottle.

Santosh then filed a case in the District Consumer Forum. The court ordered that Pepsi India Holdings Pvt Ltd and the distributors of Pepsi in Udupi, Kamath Distributors, pay Rs 1 lac as compensation, with an interest of 12 per cent per annum.

They also have to pay Santosh Rs 43 toward the cost of the bottle.Pepsi and Kamath Distributors appealed to the State Consumer Commission, which upheld the District Consumer Forum’s judgment.

The court observed that denying the ‘Khufiya’ card to Santosh had deprived him of a prize in the draw.

“If the Khufiya card is not given to every purchaser of the Pepsi bottles, then the conduct of the company and the distributors amounts to unfair trade practice,” read the judgment.

The court justified its verdict by saying that the compensation was awarded so that the company does not deprive consumers of such gifts in future.