NEW DELHI: A district consumer commission in Kerala, on July 17, ordered an Instagram-based boutique to pay compensation to a woman after finding that it took full payment for two wedding dresses but delivered only one, and never refunded the money for the other despite repeated promises. The commission held that sellers doing business over social media are bound by the same consumer protection laws as any other shop, and cannot dodge their duty to deliver or refund just because the deal happened on Instagram.How did the Instagram shopping dispute begin?According to the order, the complainant had seen the boutique’s dresses on an Instagram story. She ordered two dresses and paid Rs 3,760 in full through Google Pay in February 2025. She was told the dresses would reach her by the last week of April 2025, in time for a close relative’s wedding.The boutique later said there would be a delay and promised to deliver the dresses in the first week of May instead. But it missed that deadline too. Only one dress reached her, on 14 May, after a long wait. The second dress never came.The complainant alleged that the boutique stopped picking up her calls, did not reply properly to her messages, and was rude to her when she followed up. It had also promised to return half the money by 10 June, but that never happened either. On 21 May, during a WhatsApp call, the boutique allegedly spoke to her rudely and said no money would be returned, and that she could go to court if she wanted. With the wedding close by, she had to buy other dresses at a higher price instead.A notice sent to the boutique came back marked unclaimed, and no one from the boutique showed up before the commission. So the case went ahead without them, based only on the complainant’s side of the story.What compensation did the woman receive?The bench comprising president S K Sreela and member Stanly Harold looked at the payment receipts and the messages between the woman and the boutique. They found that the boutique had taken the full payment, kept promising delivery, pushed back the date more than once, delivered only one dress after a long wait, and never gave back the money for the second dress even though it said it would.The commission then said it doesn’t matter that the deal happened over Instagram — a seller who takes money online has to follow the same consumer laws as any other shop. They cannot get away with bad service just because the sale happened on social media.“Consumer transactions carried on through social media platforms are equally governed by the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. A seller who receives consideration through an online platform cannot evade liability by failing to supply the goods or by avoiding communication with the consumer after receiving payment.”It said that once the boutique took the full payment, it had to either deliver both dresses on time or return the money if it couldn’t. Since it never delivered one dress at all, and was very late with the other despite repeated promises, this counted as poor and careless service under the law.“The failure to deliver one of the dresses altogether and the inordinate delay in delivering the other dress, despite repeated assurances, clearly constitute deficiency in service within the meaning of Section 2(11) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.”The commission also said that keeping the woman’s money without giving her the dress or her refund amounts to unfair trade practice.“The conduct of the opposite party in retaining the complainant’s money without supplying the goods and in failing to refund the amount despite undertaking to do so also amounts to an unfair trade practice.”It ordered the boutique to pay back Rs 1,880, the price of the dress that was never delivered. It also told the boutique to pay Rs 25,000 to make up for the trouble, stress and inconvenience caused to her, plus Rs 10,000 to cover the cost of fighting the case.In total, the boutique must pay Rs 36,880. This has to be paid within 45 days of getting the order, or else it will have to pay 9% extra every year until the full amount is cleared.