Unscrupulous activities by a few sellers continue to mar the image of online players in the country. After the recent incident of a seller on Snapdeal sending bricks and soaps instead of phone to a customer in Mumbai, the Kolkata police have arrested a seller of online marketplace eBay for selling fake products.

The Enforcement Branch and the Anandapur Police in Kolkata, along with Mumbai-based legal firm Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights (EIPR), conducted a raid at an office on the Anandapur Main Road and arrested the eBay supplier, Surajit Ray, for selling duplicate Canon products on the portal.

Several consumer durables companies, including Canon, Lenovo and Dell, had last year issued advisories on their websites warning consumers not to buy from online players such as Snapdeal and Flipkart.

eBay India’s spokesperson Girish Huria said the company has not received any information in this regard yet. However, it will provide all necessary cooperation to law enforcement agencies as and when required, he added.

In a separate incident, a seller on Flipkart has thrice delivered empty packets of pen-drives. The customer, Adarsh Anandan, recorded a video from the moment the delivery guy arrived till un-boxing, which clearly shows an empty packet and posted it on Facebook after Flipkart questioned the validity of his earlier posts on the social network.

Ankur Singla, Founder and CEO, Akosha, an online customer forum, said complaints against online players have increased recently. Akosha typically receives 1,000 complaints daily for e-commerce players. Most complaints are about invalid discounts, sellers cancelling order, fake products, non-delivery or delayed delivery, and several other discrepancies. In a rush to expand their operations in India, the online companies are ignoring to check the credibility of a seller, say experts. Several leading brands such as Louis Vuitton, Mont Blanc, Jimmy Choo, Hermes and Cartier have earlier approached Indian courts as they found that online firms were selling fake or substituted goods.

Safir Anand of law firm Anand and Anand, who has represented some luxury brands in the court, said these affected brands are examining the volume of trade conducted online for luxury brands. According to an Assocham report, the fake luxury goods market in India is growing at 40-45 per cent annually and the online industry accounts for over 25 per cent of the fake goods market.

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