Fashion and lifestyle brand Arong has received a legal notice demanding that it stop charging customers for paper shopping bags.
The notice was sent on Monday by Supreme Court lawyer Nishat Farzana to the Managing Director of Arong’s corporate office and the store manager of its Moghbazar outlet. Farzana, who identified herself as a regular customer of Arong, demanded that the practice of charging for paper bags be halted within 10 days. Failure to comply, she warned, could compel her to approach the relevant authorities and courts.
She said, “This issue concerns consumer rights. If Arong fails to act on this notice, I may invoke the Consumer Rights Protection Act.”
According to the notice, on September 24, the complainant shopped at Arong’s Moghbazar outlet. At the billing counter, she discovered that no bag was being provided with the purchased products. When asked, she was informed that from September onwards, Arong would no longer give shopping bags for free. Previously complimentary paper bags were now being sold. A leaflet at the counter titled “Your favorite Arong bag is now more valuable” indicated that a limited charge applied to the bag, with proceeds supposedly going to a local tree-planting project.
The notice criticized this approach as inappropriate for a brand of Arong’s reputation. While environmental initiatives are appreciated, they should ideally be funded from corporate social responsibility (CSR) budgets rather than by charging customers directly. The lawyer described the practice as coercive, unfair, and indicative of unscrupulous business practices, particularly since the paper bags were small, forcing customers purchasing multiple items to pay extra for additional bags—a burden on ordinary earners.
The notice also highlighted customer dissatisfaction expressed on social media and at Arong outlets. It urged the brand to provide paper bags for free, emphasizing that Arong’s reputation as a trusted and widely admired brand is built on reliability, and such a practice undermines consumer trust.
