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Showing contexts for: sms messages in Star India(P) Ltd. vs Society Of Catalysts . on 23 January, 2020Matching Fragments
2.2 The winner for each episode was randomly selected out of the persons who had sent in the correct answers, and awarded a prize money of Rs. 2 lakhs. There was no entry fee for the HSHS contest. However, it is not disputed that participants in the HSHS contest were required to pay Rs. 2.40 per SMS message to Airtel, which was higher than the normal rate for SMSes. Hence, Respondent No. 1, which is a consumer society (hereinafter “the complainant”), filed a complaint before the National Commission against Star India and Airtel (but not against BSNL and MTNL), contending that they were committing an ‘unfair trade practice’ within the meaning of Section 2(1)(r)(3)(a) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (“the 1986 Act”). It was alleged that the Appellants had created a false impression in viewers’ minds that participation in the HSHS contest was free of cost, whereas the cost of organizing the contest as well the prize money was being reimbursed from the increased rate of SMS charges, and the profits from these charges were being shared by Airtel with Star India.
2.3 Further, it was alleged that an unfair trade practice had also been committed inasmuch as the contest was essentially a lottery as the questions were simple, and the winners were finally picked by random selection. The purpose of this contest was to promote the business interests of the Appellants by increasing the viewership and Television Rating Points (TRP’s) of the KBC programme, and thus to command higher advertising charges, and also by increasing the revenue earned from SMS messages. Hence the Appellants were culpable for conducting a lotterylike contest to promote their business interests under Section 2(1)(r)(3)(b) of the 1986 Act.
2.4 It is relevant to note that the complainant is only a voluntary consumer organization which has filed this complaint as part of its objective of furthering the consumer protection movement. It is not their case that they have participated in the HSHS contest and incurred any loss on account thereof. It is further relevant to note that the complainant’s assertions are solely based on a survey which it had carried out, in which the majority of participants apparently stated that they were under the impression that participation in the HSHS contest was free and the SMS charges were retained only by the service provider, i.e. Airtel and most of the viewers felt that the contest was carried out to increase the popularity of the KBC programme. The conclusions of this survey were apparently confirmed by a newspaper report dated 15.7.2007 published by the Hindustan Times. As per this newspaper report, Airtel received 58 million SMS messages, and the revenue earned from the SMSes was shared by Star India and Airtel.
3. The National Commission in the impugned judgment observed that though the Appellants had not disclosed the revenue earned from the HSHS contest on grounds of confidentiality of proprietary information, it was apparent that they had created an impression that the prize money was being given free of charge, even though they had not disputed that the prize money for the HSHS contest was paid out of the money collected through SMS charges. The Commission relied upon the figures stated in the newspaper article dated 15.7.2007 (supra), and found that since the Appellants had not denied that they had received 58 million SMSes, they would have collected Rs. 13.92 crore from the participants of the HSHS contest for such messages, whereas a total sum of only Rs. 1.04 crores was paid as prize money. Thus, the gross earnings of the Appellants were disproportionate to the cost of the prizes offered. 3.1 The Commission further found that no viewer could discern from the onscreen advertisements that the costs of the contest were being met through the SMS charges, and the Appellants had clearly not notified viewers about the same. It found a contradiction between the Appellants’ stances as to whether the HSHS contest was advertised as ‘free’ or not. It was also observed that the Appellants had not brought any evidence on record to show that the transmission of SMS messages for the HSHS contest was a value added service such that the higher SMS cost was justified, and hence the same could not be construed as a value added service. It was presumed by the National Commission that the special business relationship between Star India and Airtel included an undisclosed revenue sharing agreement.