Business Self-Regulation in India: A Study with special reference to Consumer Protection

Business Self Regulation is the mechanism that is followed by industries and various business entities for their smooth functioning and protection of consumer. Hence business self regulation is an important aspect of Consumer protection. With the enactment of Consumer Protection Act 1986, the focus has been shifted towards regularization of businesses in order to prevent the number of cases before the Consumer Forums. Such regularization is done through the code of ethics that is followed by the industries. The business community has prioritized to regulate itself and the corporate sector has turned to be more accountable now. But even after the existence of such laws and policies, there are number of cases that that have been lying pending before the consumer forums. This pendency of cases shows the ineffectiveness of the policy of business self regulation. This policy should be backed by Government sanction. The Consumer Protection Act 2019 too is silent about the process of Business Self Regulation. The article would highlight the importance of the theory of Business Self Regulation from consumer perspective and the researcher would also discuss the code of ethics that have been followed by the industries to regulate themselves.