Comments
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Friday said it has issued a notice to Amazon Seller Services over the issue of sweets under the name ‘Shri Ram Mandir Ayodhya Prasad’ being sold on its platform.
The action was initiated on a representation made by the Confederation of All India Traders which alleged that Amazon is engaging in deceptive trade practices with sweets being sold on its platform under the guise of Shri Ram Mandir Ayodhya Prasad.
The CCPA said that on examining the representation it observed that various sweets and food products are currently available for sale on the Amazon e-commerce platform claiming to be prasad of “Shri Ram Mandir, Ayodhya.”
“Enabling the sale of food products online that make false representations misleads consumers regarding the genuine characteristics of the product. Such practice falsely influences consumers to make purchase decisions they might not have otherwise taken, had the accurate attributes of the product been mentioned,” the CCPA said in its order.
Unfair trade practice
According to the provisions of the Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules, 2020 no e-commerce entity can adopt any unfair trade practice, whether in the course of business on its platform or otherwise, it added.
It added that under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, misleading advertisement is defined as that which “falsely describes a product or service; or gives a false guarantee to, or is likely to mislead the consumers as to the nature, substance, quantity or quality of such product or service.”
CCPA has sought response from Amazon 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, the statement added.
“We have received a communication from the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) regarding misleading product claims by certain seller(s) and investigating them for violations. In the interim, we are taking appropriate action against such listings as per our policies,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement.
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.