Consumer watchdog initiates Class Action against Ola Electric

NEW DELHI: The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has initiated a class action against Ola Electric following around 10,600 complaints against the company for failure to address consumer grievances.
Union consumer affairs secretary Nidhi Khare told TOI, “We had been receiving complaints of consumers at the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) for little over a year. When the complaints escalated and were taken up with the company, they were not addressed properly. We have given them 15 days to respond to the notice.”
Class action is initiated when there are similar complaints that impact a large section of consumers.
Officials said the complaints received in the last year were put under 10 broad categories, including delay in delivery of booked EVs and refunds, poor repair, misleading claims, unfair trade practice and even selling secondhand items. They added that there had been some cases where complaints had been filed against the company for bullying consumers.
Sources said the CCPA has sent the full dossier of the complaints, which also included charging during free service period or warranty.
“There is deficiency in services and unfair trade practices. We will initiate action after going through their response,” said an official.
Earlier, the CCPA had initiated class action against airline ticketing aggregators for delay in refunding the ticket charge to passengers who could not fly due to Covid-19 induced lockdown and suspension of air travel.