Prominent pizza chain fined for charging 49 extra

Ahmedabad: A consumer commission here has ordered pizza restaurant chain Domino's Pizza to refund an extra amount of Rs 49 charged from customers and to pay them a compensation of Rs 3,000 for causing mental agony and for making them resort to litigation.In this case, residents of Vaishnodevi Circle, Saroj Kumar Naik and Sasmita Naik, ordered pizza from Domino's Khoraj outlet on Dec 25, 2024. For this, the eatery raised an online bill of Rs 313. However, when the delivery man arrived with the food items, he asked for Rs 361.57 and showed a bill generated by the vendor. The Naiks questioned the enhanced bill, and the delivery man explained that it was generated by adding taxes and other charges.
The customers paid the extra Rs 49 to the delivery boy, but informed the vendor and the company by sending emails about the increase in the bill amount after it was generated online. The dispute remained unresolved for some time. Their efforts to take up the issue with the customer care service also did not solve the problem. The customers sued the pizza restaurant and its company, Jubilant Food Works Ltd, with the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission, Ahmedabad (rural).The consumer commission issued notices to the restaurant, but nobody attended the proceedings on its behalf. The commission accepted the customers' case and said, "It is established that an amount of Rs 49 was charged more than the bill that generated online. Thus, the opponents showed serious deficiency in service and adopted unfair trade practice. After an online bill is generated, presenting a separate bill and charging more amount without any justification is akin to an attack on consumer rights."The commission ordered the eatery to refund Rs 49 with 9% interest, and pay compensation of Rs 2,000 for causing mental agony and Rs 1,000 towards litigation cost.