Who Became 'crorepati'? Star Plus, Airtel Told To Shell Out Rs 1 Crore

[Honest 836]

Who became 'Crorepati'? Star Plus, Airtel told to shell out Rs 1 crore

12 Sep, 2008, 2058 hrs IST, ET

NEW DELHI: A consumer commission has imposed a fine of Rs 1 crore on mobile service providers Airtel and entertainment TV channel Star Plus for "unfair trade practice" during the game show "Kaun Banega Crorepati".

Headed by Justice M B Shah, the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission, said that both companies violated the consumer protection act "in conducting the 'Har Seat Hot Seat' contest, which was a part of the show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati', and thereby adopted an unfair trade practice."

"Star Plus and the Bharti Airtel Ltd are directed to pay jointly damages of Rs.10 million. They are hereby directed to deposit the said sum of Rs.10 million with the registrar of this commission, who in turn, shall deposit the same to the credit of the Consumer Welfare Fund," Justice Shah observed Thursday.

The commission observed that on the basis of the admitted fact that Bharti Airtel received 58 million SMS text messages, it goes without saying that this practice resulted in an increase in their business.

Further, normal charge of the 58 million SMSs would have fetched only a maximum of Rs 5.8 crore. As against this, they received Rs 13.92 crore from SMS messages, the commission observed.

The participants who sent the answer using Airtel's SMS service, were required to pay Rs 2.40 per message, which was higher than the normal charges.

The commission further said: "the excess revenue (Rs 13.92 crore minus Rs 5.8 crore) comes to Rs 8.12 crorer. Out of this, they distributed prizes amounting to Rs 1.04 crore. Still, the surplus revenue comes Rs 7.08 million."

The commission praised the Society of Catalysts, a non-government organisation for filing the complaint and thus highlighting the unfair trade practice.

[Sadikk 301]

I love this kind of news.

Its high time now, TRAI shud step in for this premium SMS charges.

[nitink 279]

awesome news

thou 1 cr wont be much for these big shots, but yes it will act as a deterrent for others.

[ashoksoft 83]

Sadik ... do i smell guddu around this ?

Other forum members might not understand the joke its just a private wise crack between sadik and me hehehe

anyway ... love this kind of news

[kshah 452]

this is good news indeed but they should be charged twice the amount they earn with malpractice

[Sadikk 301]

Arey bahot log hai guddu jaise duniya me. agar hum log sab aise ho jaye to ye MNCs ko ya to real service deni padegi ya to bhaag jayenge india se.

Meet me sometime ill tell u one more funda how to treat Telly Marketers calls. I love their calls, and they hate me.

Sadik ... do i smell guddu around this ?

Other forum members might not understand the joke its just a private wise crack between sadik and me hehehe

anyway ... love this kind of news

[Asit 4]

Meet me sometime ill tell u one more funda how to treat Telly Marketers calls. I love their calls, and they hate me.

Sadikk bhai, jara hame bhi batao........

[manishag 17]

this is not a new case of these MNC and the GSM operators like Bharti Vodafone. they cheat the customers every single moment. so even if they pay Rs 10 million they will make this much money in few seconds by cheating the customers. So it hardly matters weather they pay Rs 10 million or 100 million.

Starpuls will make money by showing some sasbahu nautanki or by showing some Breaking news like Aish purchased new saree or Sahid purchased a pair of shoes.

Airtel all of knows