Manufacturer, Seller or Service Provider: Who Pays for a Defective Product?

You bought a geyser last winter. It looked fine for three months. One morning it short-circuits, throws sparks, and the bathroom door is scorched black before your husband manages to switch off the mains. Nobody died, thank god, but the wall is ruined, the geyser is dead, and the showroom that sold it to you is now blaming the company. The company is blaming the electrician who installed it. The electrician has stopped picking up the phone. Three different people, all pointing at each other - and you, sitting in front of a burnt bathroom, are the one who has to figure out whom to drag to a consumer forum.

This blog answers exactly that question. When a product turns out to be bad and someone gets hurt or something gets damaged, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (we will just call it the CP Act) gives you a clear list of three people you can go after - the maker, the seller, and the service provider. Each has separate rules. Once you know which rule fits your facts, the case writes itself.

What the Law Calls a Product Liability Action

The CP Act uses a single phrase for this kind of fight - a product liability action. Section 82 of the Act says these provisions apply to "every claim for compensation under a product liability action by a complainant for any harm caused by a defective product manufactured by a product manufacturer or serviced by a product service provider or sold by a product seller." Read it again slowly. There are three possible defendants - manufacturer, seller, service provider - and one common trigger: harm caused by a defective product.

Section 83: "A product liability action may be brought by a complainant against a product manufacturer or a product service provider or a product seller, as the case may be, for any harm caused to him on account of a defective product."

The word "harm" matters. It is defined separately in the Act. Harm includes physical injury, illness, mental agony if it is linked to a physical injury, damage to property other than the defective product itself, and in serious cases, loss of life. So a phone that simply stops working is a defective product, but unless it also injures you or burns your other belongings, you fight that as a regular deficiency-of-goods case under the older parts of the Act. The Sections 82-87 product liability machinery kicks in when there is harm beyond just the product being useless.

The reason the law was written this way is simple. A buyer is the smallest, weakest party in the chain. The big companies have lawyers, MOU clauses, certificates and complicated supply chains designed to keep blame moving. The CP Act cuts through that by saying: pick any one of these three, file your case, and let them sort out among themselves who pays whom internally.

What Counts as a Defective Product?

Before you can ask who pays, you have to be able to say with a straight face that the product was defective. The Act does not leave this to instinct. Section 2(34) defines a "product liability" claim, and Section 2 also defines defect and harm. Put together, a product is treated as defective if any one of these is true.

• It had a manufacturing defect. Something went wrong on the factory line - the unit you got is not how the company itself intended it to be.
• It was bad in design. Even when made correctly, the design was unsafe or unreasonably risky. Think a pressure cooker whose lid can fly off at normal pressure.
• It did not match its manufacturing specifications. The blueprint said one wire thickness, the factory used a thinner one. The unit deviates from what was specified.
• It did not conform to express warranty. The company itself wrote on the box, the manual, or the brochure that it would do X. It did not do X.
• It lacked adequate instructions or warnings. Even a safe product becomes dangerous when the user is not told "do not pour water on this" or "do not use indoors."

These five buckets are not theoretical. They appear word for word in Section 84(1) of the Act when describing when a manufacturer is liable. So when you sit down to write your complaint, your first job is to tick the bucket that matches your facts. In the burnt-bathroom example, the case sounds like (a) and possibly (b) - a manufacturing defect, and a design that did not include adequate insulation.

When the Manufacturer Pays - Section 84

Section 84 is the strongest weapon in this part of the Act. It is what lawyers call strict liability against the manufacturer. The plain-English meaning is this: you do not have to prove that the company was careless or fraudulent. You only have to prove that the product fell into one of those five buckets above and caused you harm. The Act spells this out in Section 84(2), which says the manufacturer is liable "even if he proves that he was not negligent or fraudulent in making the express warranty of a product."

Why is this such a big deal? In an ordinary civil suit, you would have to show the company was at fault. That would mean expert evidence about their factory, their quality control, their testing protocols - things you have no access to. Section 84 says: forget all that. Show the defect, show the harm, link the two, and the manufacturer pays.

So who is a "product manufacturer"? The CP Act defines it broadly. It is anyone who makes the final product or any component of it, anyone who assembles components into a final product, anyone who puts their own brand or label on a product made by someone else, or anyone who imports the product into India. That last one is critical for foreign brands. If you bought a Korean cooker through an Indian importer, the importer is a manufacturer for CP Act purposes - you do not have to go to Korea.

If you are a small buyer reading this and worrying about how you will ever take on a big company - that is exactly what Section 84 was written to fix. The whole point of strict liability is that the bigger and richer party should bear the risk of its own defective products, not the consumer.

When the Seller Pays - Section 85

The seller is the shop, dealer, distributor or online platform that handed you the product. The CP Act knows that most sellers are middlemen who never touched the product's design or factory. So Section 85 does not impose strict liability on a seller who is not also the manufacturer. Instead, the seller pays only in five specific situations.

• (a) The seller exercised substantial control over the designing, testing, manufacturing, packaging or labelling of the product, and that control was linked to the harm. A large retailer that dictates what goes into a "house-brand" product cannot hide behind a "we just sell it" defence.
• (b) The seller altered or modified the product, and that alteration was a substantial factor in causing the harm. A shop that rewires an electronic before selling it cannot blame the manufacturer for the consequences of its rewiring.
• (c) The seller made an express warranty independent of the manufacturer's warranty, and the product failed to conform to it. A car dealer who personally writes "guaranteed 30 km/litre" on the invoice is on the hook for that promise, even if the manufacturer never said so.
• (d) The seller sold it and the manufacturer cannot be reached. If the identity of the manufacturer is not known, or notice cannot be served on them, or they are not subject to Indian law, or any order against them cannot be enforced - the seller steps in. This is your safety net for goods from grey markets and unknown overseas factories.
• (e) The seller failed to exercise reasonable care in assembling, inspecting or maintaining the product, or did not pass on the manufacturer's warnings or instructions - and that failure was the proximate cause of the harm.

Many consumers wrongly assume the shop is automatically responsible. It is not - unless one of these five fits. So when you are about to write a notice to the shop, ask yourself: which of (a) to (e) applies? If none does, your case may be only against the manufacturer, and your shop is only a witness.

For e-commerce buyers, this becomes especially important. If you bought through Amazon, Flipkart or Myntra, the marketplace is treated as a seller. But the line between marketplace and inventory seller has its own legal complications worth understanding - see our deeper material on online shopping disputes and platform liability. The platform's role in the chain often decides whether it falls under (a), (d) or escapes entirely.

When the Service Provider Pays - Section 86

The third defendant the law gives you is the "product service provider". This is the person who installs, repairs, maintains or services the product. The geyser electrician in our opening story. The lift maintenance contractor in an apartment society. The car service centre that did the brake job two weeks before the accident.

Section 86 says a service provider is liable in a product liability action if any of the following is true.

• (a) The service was faulty, imperfect, deficient or inadequate in quality, nature or manner of performance - measured against what the law, the contract or general standards required.
• (b) There was an act of omission, commission, negligence, or conscious withholding of information which caused the harm. Skipping a step in installation, hiding a defect they noticed, certifying something safe when it was not.
• (c) The service provider did not issue adequate instructions or warnings to prevent the harm. The electrician left without telling you the geyser must be switched off at night, even though they noticed it was running hot.
• (d) The service did not conform to an express warranty or the terms and conditions of the contract. They promised a 1-year free service period, then refused to come when called.

Notice that the service provider is judged on negligence and on contract - unlike the manufacturer, who is judged on strict liability. That means you usually have to plead and prove what the service provider did or did not do. But the bar is not high. A simple inspection report from another competent technician saying "the original installation was wrong because of X" is often enough to start.

Can I Sue More Than One of Them?

Yes. This is the part many people get wrong. Section 83 uses the phrase "as the case may be," which sounds like it forces you to pick one. It does not. The standard practice in product liability cases is to array all three - the manufacturer, the seller, and any involved service provider - as separate opposite parties in the same complaint. The forum then sorts out whose liability is what.

There are two reasons to do this. First, you usually do not know at the start whether the defect was in the factory or in the installation. By arraying everyone, you let the forum's process - notice, reply, inspection report, evidence - reveal who is actually responsible. Second, even if one party tries to escape using a Section 87 defence (we deal with those in our companion article on product liability defences), the other parties remain on the hook. You do not want to be left without a remedy because you sued the wrong person.

The forum has the power to apportion liability between them. So a final order might say the manufacturer pays 70%, the service provider pays 30%, the seller is dismissed. That is fine. You get your full amount; they argue among themselves about ratios.

What Can I Ask the Forum to Give Me?

A product liability action under Sections 82-87 is fought in the same consumer forum where you would fight any other consumer case - district, state, or national, depending on the value of the claim. The reliefs the forum can grant are wide.

• Refund of the price of the defective product.
• Replacement of the product with a fresh, non-defective one.
• Repair at the manufacturer's cost.
• Compensation for the harm caused - medical bills, damage to other property, loss of income, mental agony linked to the injury.
• Punitive damages in cases of gross negligence or where the company knew of the defect and did nothing.
• Discontinuance of the unfair or hazardous trade practice. The Central Consumer Protection Authority can also order a recall.

The key thing to understand is that the price of the product is rarely the main number. In the burnt-bathroom example, the geyser cost twelve thousand rupees, but the wall repair, the bathroom door, the time off work, the doctor's visit because of smoke inhalation - these can run into a lakh or more. A well-drafted product liability complaint asks for all of it, supported by bills, photos, and reports.

What Should I Actually Do Now?

If you are sitting with a defective product right now and unsure where to begin, here is a clean roadmap. Do these things in order, not in panic.

1. Stop using the product. Switch it off, unplug it, set it aside. Continuing to use a defective product can be used against you later as misuse - a defence we explain in our companion article on Section 87.
2. Photograph and video everything. The product, the damage, the surrounding area, the serial number plate, the box, the warranty card, the manual. Do this within hours, not days.
3. Find every paper. Invoice, payment proof, box, warranty card, instruction manual, email confirmations, chat screenshots with the seller or service provider. Put them in one folder.
4. Get an independent inspection. If the product is electrical or mechanical, get a competent technician other than the original service provider to give a short written report on what went wrong.
5. Send a written legal notice to all three - manufacturer, seller, and service provider. Spell out the defect, the harm, the amount claimed, and a 15-day deadline. For the right structure of a notice, see our guide on drafting consumer legal notices.
6. Do not accept silent settlements. Companies often offer a quiet replacement on condition of "signing a satisfaction letter" that gives up all future claims. Do not sign one without legal advice.
7. File a complaint in the right consumer forum. Pecuniary jurisdiction is based on the amount claimed - up to one crore goes to the District Commission; up to ten crore to the State Commission; above that to the National Commission.
8. Preserve the defective product itself. Do not send it for repair, do not discard it. The forum may order a joint inspection, and the product is your most important piece of evidence.
9. Calculate the full harm, not just the price. Medical bills, damage to other property, loss of income, transport costs - everything gets totalled.
10. Get a lawyer involved early if the harm is serious - physical injury, large damage, or a child or elderly person was affected. Mistakes in the early stage are hard to fix later.

A Quiet Word Before You Walk Into the Fight

Product liability cases in India look intimidating on paper. They involve big companies, careful clauses on warranty cards, and customer-care staff trained to wear you down. They are also among the most consumer-friendly areas of Indian law. Sections 82 to 87 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 were drafted exactly because Parliament wanted ordinary people to be able to fight bad products without becoming experts in tort law.

If you have read this far, you already know more than ninety percent of the buyers walking into a showroom tomorrow. You know there are three possible defendants, you know the test for each one, you know that you can sue all of them together, and you know what the forum can give you at the end of it.

If your case involves a serious injury, a large loss, or a company that is refusing to even engage, it makes sense to get a lawyer to draft the notice and the complaint before you go any further. A team that handles consumer disputes day in and day out, like Pinaka Legal, can usually tell within one call whether your facts make a strong Section 84 case, a Section 85 case, or a Section 86 case - and what the realistic compensation looks like. We have linked our contact below.

You Are Not Powerless

The defective product in your kitchen is not the end of the story. It is the start of a process the law has specifically designed for people in your situation. The company knows this even if you do not. They know that one well-drafted complaint, with photographs, an inspection report and the right sections quoted, makes them sit up. Most product disputes settle the moment the other side realises the buyer actually understands their rights.

Read this article alongside the companion piece on Section 87 defences so you know what counter-arguments the company will throw at you - and then walk into the forum with both halves of the picture in your head. That is how ordinary buyers win these cases.

Frequently Asked Questions

My phone exploded and burned my hand. Who do I sue - the brand or the shop?

Both, and ideally also the importer if the brand is foreign. Under Section 84 of the CP Act the manufacturer (which includes the importer and the brand-owner who labels it) is strictly liable for a manufacturing or design defect. The shop is liable under Section 85 only if it altered the phone, gave its own warranty, or you cannot reach the manufacturer. Standard practice is to array all of them in one consumer complaint and let the forum apportion blame.

Is the manufacturer always responsible, even without proof of negligence?

Yes, in product liability cases the manufacturer is on what is called strict liability. Section 84(2) of the CP Act expressly says the manufacturer is liable even if he proves that he was not negligent or fraudulent. You only have to show that the product had a manufacturing defect, a design defect, deviated from specifications, did not match its express warranty, or lacked adequate warnings - and that this caused harm. Negligence is not part of the test for a manufacturer.

What is the difference between a seller and a service provider in a defective product case?

A seller is the shop, dealer, distributor or platform that sold you the product. A service provider is whoever installs, repairs, maintains or services it - the electrician, plumber, car service centre, lift contractor. The CP Act treats them separately. Seller liability under Section 85 is limited to five specific situations. Service provider liability under Section 86 turns on whether the service itself was faulty, negligent, lacked warnings, or breached an express warranty.

The brand is a foreign company. Can I still sue under Indian law?

Yes, through the importer. The CP Act defines a manufacturer to include anyone who imports a product into India. So when you buy a foreign-branded geyser, mobile phone or car from an Indian importer or authorised distributor, that Indian entity is treated as the manufacturer for product liability purposes. You do not have to chase the foreign factory. Section 85(d) is also a safety net - if the manufacturer's identity is not known, or cannot be effectively reached in India, the seller becomes liable.

Can I claim for damage to other things the defective product destroyed, like my furniture or wall?

Yes. The CP Act's definition of harm in Section 2(22) expressly includes damage to property other than the defective product itself. So if a faulty geyser scorched your bathroom or a defective fridge ruined the kitchen flooring, the cost of those repairs forms part of your compensation claim. You will need bills, photos and ideally a repair estimate. The product itself you can also recover separately - either as refund, replacement or repair.

How long do I have to file a product liability complaint?

Two years from the date of the cause of action - normally the date of the harm or the date you first discovered the defect. The CP Act sets out this limitation period for consumer complaints. The forum can condone delay only if you give a good reason in writing, supported by evidence. So even if you plan to negotiate first, do not let the two-year clock run out while you wait for a reply from customer care.

Do I need a lawyer or can I file the complaint myself?

You can file it yourself. The consumer forums are designed to be accessible without legal representation, and many simple cases are run by the consumers themselves. But for product liability matters involving injury, significant damage or a defending company with a legal team, a lawyer is usually worth the cost. A poorly drafted complaint can fail on technical grounds even when the facts are strong - wrong section, wrong forum, missing prayer, inadequate evidence.

The seller is asking me to sign a satisfaction letter in exchange for replacement. Should I?

Be very careful. Many satisfaction or settlement letters drafted by company legal teams include a clause that says the buyer gives up all future claims - including for medical complications or hidden damage you have not noticed yet. If you have any injury, any unexplained damage, or any product that has not been independently inspected, do not sign such a letter without legal advice. A simple replacement in exchange for full quit-claim is rarely a fair trade.

What if the product is still under warranty? Does product liability still apply?

Yes. Warranty and product liability are two separate things. Warranty is the company's contractual promise. Product liability under Sections 82-87 is a statutory right that exists independently of warranty - the manufacturer cannot contract it out of the box. So even if your warranty has expired, you can still file a product liability action if the product caused harm. And if the warranty is alive, you can use both - warranty for free repair or replacement, and product liability for compensation for the harm.

Can I claim mental agony or only physical injury and money loss?

Mental agony, but it must be linked to a physical injury, a serious incident, or a significant loss. The CP Act's definition of harm includes mental agony or emotional distress connected to harm to a person. Consumer forums routinely award compensation for mental agony in product liability cases - especially where children, elderly persons or sensitive equipment (medical devices, baby products) are involved. The amount depends on the seriousness of the facts; pure inconvenience without physical impact usually gets a modest figure.

Does it matter where I file - district, state or national consumer commission?

Yes, and it is set by the amount you are claiming as total compensation. As of the current pecuniary limits, claims up to one crore rupees go to the District Commission, up to ten crore to the State Commission, and above ten crore to the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. If you file at the wrong level, the complaint is returned and you have to file afresh. Always add up the value of the product plus all the harm before deciding which forum has jurisdiction.

Will the company try to settle out of court once I file?

Most often, yes. Once a properly drafted complaint reaches the forum and notice is served, the company's legal team realises the matter is real, the costs are mounting, and the publicity is unwelcome. A large proportion of product liability matters settle through mediation or direct negotiation before final hearing. If the settlement is fair - covers the harm and is documented in a forum-recorded compromise order - it is often a sensible outcome. Just do not settle in the first phone call after filing; that is usually a lowball.

For more articles on Indian law, visit the Pinaka Legal Blog.