A consumer court in Bengaluru has ordered PVR Cinemas and INOX (now merged with PVR) to ensure that movie tickets mention the actual start time of movie shows, rather than mentioning the time when commercial advertisements are screened before the movie starts.
A coram of President M Shobha along with members K Anita Shivakumar and Suma Anil Kumar passed the order after a cinema goer (complainant) sued PVR Cinemas, BookMyShow (Big Tree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.) and INOX.
The complainant, Abhishek MR claimed that around 25 minutes of his time was wasted during a PVR cinema screening, as he was shown long commercial ads before the screening of the movie "Sam Bahadur" in 2023.
The delay made it difficult for him to get back to work after the movie show like he had earlier planned.
The district consumer forum observed that BookMyShow need not be blamed for this, since it has no control over movie show timings or the ads telecast before movie shows.
However, it held that PVR and INOX cannot continue to engage in the unfair practice of a movie-goer's wasting time by showing long commercial advertisements during the time slot meant to exhibit the movie itself.
"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," the consumer forum said.
It went on to issue the following directions to PVR and Inox:
- The actual movie time should be mentioned on cinema tickets to be issued to the public at large.
- PVR and Inox must stop engaging in unfair trade practices and not to exhibit advertisements beyond the scheduled show times mentioned in the ticket.
The district consumer forum further ordered PVR Cinemas and Inox to pay 20,000 to the complainant for causing him mental agony and inconvenience, and an additional 8,000 towards the expenses he bore to file the complaint.
Additionally, PVR Cinemas and Inox was also ordered to pay 1 lakh as punitive damages for engaging in unfair trade practices. This amount is to be paid to the consumer welfare fund within 30 days, according to the February 15 order.
The complainant, Abhishek MR, had booked three tickets for himself and two family members to watch the movie Sam Bahadur on December 26, 2023.
He booked tickets worth 825.66 for a 4:05 PM PVR Cinema show and entered the movie theatre around 4 PM.
However, instead of starting the movie at the scheduled time, PVR Cinemas played advertisements and movie trailers from 4:05 PM to 4:28 PM. The actual feature film began only at 4:30 PM.
The complainant alleged that this delay of nearly 30 minutes disrupted his schedule, as he had planned to return to work by 6:30 PM, on the assumption that the movie would conclude on time.
He proceeded to file a consumer complaint in January 2024 and urged the district consumer forum to issue directions so that PVR Cinemas and INOX stops the practice of playing long commercial ads during movie screenings.
PVR Cinemas and INOX defended their conduct, arguing that theatres are legally bound to screen public service announcements (PSAs) to spread public awareness about important social issues, as mandated by the Central and State governments.
The consumer forum agreed that there was nothing wrong with exhibiting these PSAs, but found that even the government's guidelines mentioned that the duration of these PSAs need not exceed 10 minutes.
The consumer forum added that these PSAs could be screened before the actual movie time mentioned on movie tickets.
"In our view OPs 1 and 3 (PVR and INOX) can telecast only PSAs 10 mins prior of the movie as per the guidelines," the consumer commission said.
Moreover, in the present case, the consumer forum found 95 per cent of the ads played before the movie show attended by the complainant were not government PSAs but commercial ads.
The consumer forum also rejected PVR Cinemas' argument that the complainant had violated anti-piracy laws when he filmed the ads played during the Sam Bahadur screening.
The commission pointed out that the complainant had videotaped only the commercial ads played before the movie, and not the movie itself. Further, he did so for a good cause as many movie-goers face the same issue, the commission pointed out. This cannot be termed illegal, it held.
The commission further dismissed arguments by PVR and INOX that long ads may benefit movie-goers who may be late to the show as they may be subjected to security checks at the theatre's entry points.
The commission reasoned that it is unfair that punctual movie-goers have to silently watch long movie ads only for this purpose.
"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," the commission said.
