[Iyencar]

Earlier today, the Lok Sabha passed a replacement of the archaic consumer protection law. Any false or misleading claim to be penalised with imprisonment that can be extended upto 2 years and fine upto 10 Lakhs.
For celebrities involved in misleading ads, there will be a fine but no provision for a jail term.
Most importantly, provisions are also made for product liability action on account of harm caused to consumers due to a defective product or by a deficiency in services!
ET Article
Hindu Article

As car owners, I personally feel this is a very welcome development and will hopefully put an end to the fleecing we are subjected to due to the poor consumer laws that were earlier present.
The Hindu article mentioned above gives an interesting case study:

a consumer can sue the cab aggregator if the taxi comes late and as a result, they miss a scheduled flight. Also, the case can be filed from anywhere, unlike the existing law which allows the consumer to register the complaint only from the same place of purchase of the product or where the service is availed.

Earlier this year, I had booked an Uber for relatives who had flown in from Canada and were scheduled to take a domestic connecting flight as part of their multi city ticket. The driver dropped them off at the domestic airport first instead of the international (certain domestic carriers in Mumbai operate from the international terminal), even though the location was clearly stated. They missed the flight and as a result even their return flight to Canada was cancelled since they did not show up for the domestic leg. Result: a whooping 30k INR hit. If only a law such as this was prevalent then, I would have been a much less embarrassed person a few months back.
Note: The bill is yet to be passed in the upper house but there doesn't seem any reason for it to be opposed.

[Livnletcarsliv]

Given the recent proposal of FADA for the Dealer Protection Act, is there any law/regulation that protects the auto consumer? If yes, how strong are the laws?

Almost always, the customers bear the brunt of poor quality issues, bad dealership experiences (both sales and aftersales). The OEMs take the customers for a ride in the name of a warranty (especially Tata, M&M, Skoda, VW, Jeep, etc). The customers are the one who lands in all kinds of frustration, despair, mental and physical stress, and of course monetary losses as well.
Generally, we almost always advise a customer against going the legal route for the lack of protecting laws, or the least for the lack of enforcement of those laws (if there are any).

This is not the situation in other countries - US, UK, Singapore, UAE, Japan, etc., where the dealers/OEM's act responsibly and are committed. Where the customers have equal weightage (if not more) compared to the dealers/OEM's.

Is this the fate of the customers in India? Can we (as a community) do anything about it? Do we (whether an individual customer or community) have a voice for anything?

[Dwaipayan26]

I feel that the first law that should be enforced in India is the lemon law.
A lot of times consumers spend lakhs to buy a car that turns out to be a lemon and is nothing but a headache. All that the customer gets is a product which leads him/her to visit the showroom regularly and fight for the company to acknowledge the problems in the car.