Comments
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on Wednesday said it has seized 18,629 toys being sold without the mandatory ISI mark from major retail stores at malls and airports. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has also issued notices to Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal as it was found that their platforms are being used to sell toys which were found to be in violation of the compulsory BIS standards.
According to BIS, nearly 9,000 toys were seized from Raj Toy World, Ahmedabad, 3,080 from Giftz, Madurai, about 2,000 from Royal Mart, Bengaluru and 817 were seized from Kids Zone, Chennai. Seizures have also been made at stores of key retailers including Hamleys, WHSmith, Archies and Cococart at malls and airports.
Speaking to mediapersons, Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General, BIS, said, “We received complaints from domestic manufacturers that toys are still being sold without BIS mark with some illegally imported toys. So far, we have conducted 44 raids across the country in the past one month. In the first phase, we are targeting big retailers at malls and airports. So far, we have seized over 18,600 toys that did not conform with BIS standards.”
Part of awareness drive
Tiwari added this is part of a drive to increase awareness among sellers and consumers about mandatory BIS certification for toys. He added that action against the errant sellers will be taken as per provisions of the BIS Act.
Since January 2021, it is mandatory for toys to conform to Indian Standards and bear the ISI mark under a license from BIS.
Nidhi Khare, Chief Chief Commissioner, CCPA, stated that the Authority has issued notices to Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal for sale of toys in violation of compulsory BIS standards. “CCPA has sought response from the e-commerce entities within 7 days from issuance of notice, failing which necessary action may be initiated against them under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019,” an official statement added.
Meanwhile, BIS has also written to the Customs department for the setting up of joint teams to ensure that imported consignments of toys are in compliance with the BIS quality norms.
BIS is also working on a mechanism to automatically verify whether a declaration made by a seller on an e-commerce platform regarding their BIS certification is authentic through development of an API. E-commerce platforms have also assured that they will mention in their product description that the product comes under mandatory certification.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.