While buying a bar of chocolate or a pack of juice at a cineplex, did you ever wish to drag the hall owner to court for charging you more than the maximum retail price (MRP) printed on the items?

An interesting case that came up before the Delhi Consumer Commission, however, indicates there is not much a consumer can do about it.

It had long been settled by the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court that a consumer can be charged more than the MRP at a restaurant or a hotel, since he was enjoying the ambience and services (see box). Now, the verdict by the Consumer Commission settles the issue regarding the cinema halls as well.

The question before the Commission was whether the counters on the palisade of cinema halls could be considered restaurants, allowing them to charge more than the MRP. And the ruling was that these had to be considered “virtual mini restaurants” which could be permitted to charge extra.

The matter came up during an appeal by M/s PVR Limited against a decision by a district forum last December. Sharanya Aggarwal and Ekta Jindal had filed complaints against the company alleging that they were charged over the MRP at PVR Metropolitan Cinema in Gurgaon during a movie show in December 2003. According to their complaint, they were asked to pay Rs 20 for a

Kit Kat and Rs 25 for a packed juice — the MRPs of which were Rs 12 and Rs 15. The salesman had also refused to issue them a cash memo.

Holding PVR guilty of “unfair trade practice,” the forum had ordered it to refund the extra money charged and compensate the complainants with Rs 25,000.

The PVR had then filed an appeal before the Commission, which has now quashed the forum’s verdict. Upholding the contentions of the PVR, judge Barkat Ali Zaidi said: “It may not be a regular restaurant with all the usual paraphernalia, but it has the basic image of a restaurant...”

The Commission ruled: “It must therefore be held that the counter is a virtual mini restaurant and could not be called a commercial shop, confining a seller to sell the articles on the basis of the price printed thereon.”

The restaurant rule
In an appeal filed by the Federation of Restaurant and Hotels Association of India in 2003, the Delhi High Court ruled that the hotels and restaurants be permitted to charge more than the maximum retail price on account of the ambience and services they offer.

Moreover, since the food items cannot be separated from the services provided by hotels and restaurants, it was not unlawful to add charges for the same, the court had held.