Dessert dilemma: Swiggy to compensate with Rs 5000 after failing to deliver Rs 187 ice cream

Who would have guessed that Swiggy would have to pay a whopping Rs. 5000 for an ice cream order worth Rs. 100? Unexpectedly, a Bengaluru consumer court decided against the large food delivery company and ordered that it pay a customer's compensation for not delivering the ice cream she had ordered. According to Bar and Bench, the client had only requested a "nutty death by chocolate ice cream" for Rs. 187.

Swiggy falls in a swamp!

The customer would receive compensation of Rs. 3,000 and legal charges of Rs. 2,000, according to the court's ruling. Swiggy was also chastised by the court for "unfair trade practices" and "deficiency in service."When Swiggy did not deliver the ice cream the customer had purchased back in January 2023, she filed a complaint. The order never reached her, even though the delivery agent picked it up from the ice cream parlor and the app mislabeled it as "delivered."

She chose to submit the issue to the Consumer Commission because she was dissatisfied with Swiggy's customer service for not offering a refund. But Swiggy attempted to justify itself by saying that it only served as a middleman between customers and restaurants. They said that their delivery agent's purported error absolved them of liability. As reported by Bar and Bench, they asserted that they were entitled to protection under the Information Technology Act, claiming that they could not confirm whether the order had been delivered once it had been listed as "delivered" on the app.

Swiggy made to pay back

The court dismissed Swiggy's claims in spite of its justifications, stating that Swiggy had engaged in "unfair trade practice" and "deficiency of service" by refusing to return the money despite non-delivery. Initially, the complainant had sought Rs. 7,500 for legal fees and Rs. 10,000 in compensation. But, the court decided that this sum was too high and mandated that Swiggy pay Rs. 5,000 in its place.