The instant petition came up for admission hearing today.

As per petition, the complainant executed agreement dated 26.04.2021 with one LPG Marketing Company for marketing of their products which is a business of liquefied petroleum gas in packed condition through gas cylinders(point 2 of agreement). From the complaint petition and upon perusal of the point no. 6 of the said agreement in specific, it is conspicuous that the complainant intended to start a retail business for which trade deposits were made by him towards OP company. Any LPG marketing business through reseller network is completely guided by the regulations that are already hosted in the public domain by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It is the admitted position of the complaint that there is a direct nexus between the purchase of materials and the profit or loss which would be sold in the market by the LPG marketing company to their customers, to which this complainant come proposed dealer/distributor would be acting as an intermediary. Therefore, the goods are not for immediate final consumption but they are only for transfer of goods i.e. resale which does not qualify this complainant to be a consumer. As per Sec 7(i)of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 inter alia that a consumer means any person who buys any good for a consideration or user of such goods, but does not include a person who obtains such goods for “resale” or for any commercial purpose. Although the expression “commercial purpose” does not include the purpose of earning livelihood by means of self-employment, but the documents, more specifically the agreement for dealership dated 26.04.2021 speaks volumes about commercial activities between the OP Company and their proposed dealer/distributors (which includes the complainant) specially as per Cl.no. A(1), A(3), B(2), B(3) and many other covenants of the said agreement encompassing the statutory duties and licenses that are to be obtained from the authorities depicting the activities as commercial in nature.

Therefore, by taking a consistent view that as this particular complainant is to deal as a dealer or a distributor of goods of the principal commercial companyas their extended hand with a view to using such goods for carrying on activities on a moderate or a large scale for the purpose of earning profit, he will not be a consumer within the meaning of Sec 7(i) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Hence, the complaint petition no. 21/2023 is not admitted and stands rejected.

Let a plain copy be given to the parties free of cost as per CPR.

Dictated and corrected by

[HON'BLE MR. Partha Kumar Basu]
MEMBER