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The Consumer Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said that it has initiated detailed interactions with various stakeholders on the draft e-commerce rules. The objective is to finalise amendments to the Consumer Protection (E-commerce Rules) which propose various changes such as ban on fraudulent flash sale, fallback liability and other compliance norms. .
Speaking with mediapersons, Leena Nandan, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs said, “Once we received comments from stakeholders on the draft e-commerce rules, we have initiated the process of detailed discussions including with companies and industry associations. In the past two weeks, we have had several interactions. This is part of the consultative process to finalise the rules.”
The Ministry also said that the Central Consumer Protection Authority has also been taking suo-motu cognizance of violations of declaration of false country of origin on the e-commerce platforms in co-ordination with the Legal Metrology department.
Norms flouted
It has issued 202 notices to e-commerce marketplaces as well as sellers were issued from October 16, 2020 to October 22, 2021. Country of origin violation was most in electronics products (47) followed by apparels (35) and home products, cosmetics and beauty products and food products and supplements.
Also, 15 notices were for incorrect declaration of date of expiry/best before, address of manufacturer and importers, charging more than MRP, non-standard units and net quantity.
“Over 75 companies have compounded their offences, out of which 68 have compounded for country of origin violation. The total amount collected by compounding of the offences is ₹41.85 lakh,” the Ministry added. Officials said that an advisory has also been issued to all marketplace e-commerce platforms to ensure that they comply with regulations which requires them to prominently display all the information provided by its sellers.
Cybercrimes
Nandan said that the Department of Consumer Affairs has also collaborated with Home Affairs Ministry (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre) , TRAI and National Payment Corporation of India for strengthening the grievance redressal process for cyber fraud complaints.
CCPA has also decided to initiate a country-wide campaign to prevent sale of spurious and counterfeit goods.
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