In an unprecedented judgment a consumer court has held PVR-Inox guilty of wasting a citizen’s time and liable for penalty. With a total sum of nearly Rs 1.3 lakh, the order instructs that tickets must mention the actual start time of movie shows, rather than mentioning the time when commercial advertisements are screen prior to the actual film.
A coram consisting of President M Shobha and members K Anita Shivakumar and Suma Anil Kumar issued the ruling following a lawsuit filed by a cinema-goer against PVR Cinemas, BookMyShow (Big Tree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.), and Inox. The complainant, Abhishek MR claimed that nearly twenty-five minutes of his time were wasted during a PVR screening. Apart from two hour twnety-minute runtime of the film, nearly half-an-hour of commercials were screened prior to the movie.
The Case
Abhishek MR booked the 4:05 PM show with two others on December 26, 2023. Upon reaching the theatre at 4:00 PM they were subjected to the forced-advertisements till 4:28 PM and the actual movie began only at 4:30 PM. In light of causing an inconvenience to him and his accompanying persons, filed a consumer complaint in January 2024.
The Judgement
The consumer court ordered PVR Cinemas and Inox to compensate for the complainant’s mental agony and inconvenience in monetary form. He is to receive Rs 20,000 along with Rs 8,000 to manage the cost levied on him to file the complaint. Moreover, on the grounds of causing punitive damage for engaging in unfair trade practices, the cinema chain was fined Rs 1,00,000 within thirty days to a consumer welfare fund.
The directions given to PVR-Inox included that the actual starting time of the film must be mentioned on the tickets that are issued to the public. Furthermore, they were ordered to stop engaging in these “unfair trade practices” and not to display advertisements beyond the allotted showtime.
The Argument
PVR-Inox defended their conduct based on a mandate by the Central Government that theatres are legally bound to screen public service announcements (PSAs) to spread public awareness about social issues. While the consumer forum agreed that this was necessary the PSA must not exceed the duration of ten minutes. It was found that more than 90% of the ads played before the complainant’s experience were not PSAs issued by the government.