The Hyderabad District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has penalised online aggregator BookMyShow (BMS) and PVR multiplex chain for levying ‘internet handling charges’ on patrons. The court called these charges “unfair”.
Vijay Gopal, who had filed the case against BMS and PVR Cinemas, was awarded Rs. 25,000 compensation and Rs. 1,000 legal charges. BMS has also been ordered to pay Rs. 5,000 as penalty for the action. BMS will have to comply with the order within 45 days. The court said, BMS was indulging in illegal and unfair trade practice. The court noted that collecting an extra charge (handling fee) was illegal unless the government had allowed the institutions to do so. The court also stated that it is the merchant (in this case, PVR), and not the consumer, who has to pay to the service provider (BMS).
While the IT department of Telangana has stated that it does not permit service providers to levy service charges, BMS, on its website, has stated that the state government like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana allows Rs. 6 per ticket plus applicable facilitation charges for internet handling charges.
Vijay Gopal, an RTI (Right to Information) activist, had in 2019 approached the Reserve Bank of India on the issue of handling charges. The RBI had categorically stated that levying an extra internet handling fee for each ticket was a violation of the RBI’s Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) regulations which were issued by the regulator in December 2017.