Consumer court directs PVR INOX to pay Rs 1 lakh to Bengaluru man after complaint about excessive ads before movies

The consumer court noted, “In the new era, time is considered as money, each one’s time is very precious, no one has right to gain benefit out of others time and money. 25-30 (minutes) is not less to sit idle in the theatre and watch whatever the theatre telecasts. It is very hard for busy people with tight schedule watching unnecessary advertisements. However, they make their own arrangements to get some relaxation with family. (This does) not mean that people have no other work to do.”

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PVR defended itself by saying that the government mandated PSAs are meant to be played before the movie screening but the forum pointed out that the even the government’s guidelines say that these need not exceed for more than 10 minutes. The complainant proceeded to record the advertisements they were shown before the film and to this, PVR said that they had violated anti-piracy laws. However, the consumer court said that they did not record the film, but only the commercials that were played before the film. They also said that this was done for a good reason as many other movie goers have been facing the same problem so it cannot be termed as illegal.

When the theatre chain tried to defend itself by saying that playing advertisements helps them in accommodating viewers who might be late for the show, the consumer court said, “The viewers who seated early in the theatre watches advertisements silently till the scheduled time. Taking beyond the scheduled time for the purpose of telecasting the advertisements that too commercial advertisements, is unjust and unfair.”