The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which had earlier asked the Government to probe the business model of e-commerce players, may approach the Competition Commission of India, the country’s fair trade regulator, and look at other legal options by the end of the month.

In its memorandum submitted to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, the traders’ body demanded formation of a regulatory authority to monitor and regulate the e-commerce business as well as the domestic retail trade. It is also demanded formation of a committee of experts and stakeholders to assess the impact of online business on offline markets.

“We have urged the Government to constitute a Board of Internal Trade to facilitate hassle-free trade environment in the country and setting up of a retail regulatory authority for retail trade of India as well,” said Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT.

“We have asked the Government to investigate the methodology which enables the seller of online retail to sell the products at a discount on special sale days than the current price and go back to charging the old rate once the sale days are over. Such practices are tantamount to predatory pricing which contravenes the Competition Act,” he told reporters.

Khandelwal added offline traders are subjected to a plethora of laws and regulations, while e-commerce businesses do not need to follow any rules. “ For instance, the Legal Metrology ( Packaged Commodity) Rules, 2011, prescribe various conditions to be written on any packaged commodity like name and address of the manufacturing place, but the packages of online retailers do not follow such mandatory conditions.”

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