Ministry of Consumer Affairs takes cognisance of complaint against e-commerce platforms

Pramod Kumar, a member of AGAM: An initiative for Good Governance, a non-profit organization, with the objective to raise the level of governance in education, health, environmental protection, rural development, law and justice, wrote a letter to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, that various ecommerce platforms, are not complying with the mandatory rules and regulations concerning products.
Taking action on the letter the Ministry issued an office memorandum requesting the Central Consumer Protection Authority to look into the matter and take appropriate action.
Text of the letter addressed to Piyush Goyal, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution:

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Subject: Regarding non-compliance of various rules and regulations for products sold through various ecommerce platform
AGAM: An initiative for Good Governance is a non for profit organization working for rights of people and common citizen of India. The prime objective of AGAM is to raise the level of governance in the area of but not limited to Education, Health, Environmental Protection, Rural Development, Law and Justice etc.
We are writing this letter with reference to various media reporting, survey conducted and personal experiences of common people, to bring to your kind notice that various ecommerce platforms, primarily the new platforms in this area like Meesho, Shopee, Swiggy Instamart etc. and up to some extent the old and well established platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal etc. and sellers on these older platforms are not complying with the mandatory rules and regulations concerning products listed to be sold on these platforms.
That, these platforms are not showing the mandatory details like Maximum Retail Price (MRP), Best Before/Expiry Dates and similar other details like Date of Manufacturing, Country of Origin, seller info, seller GST details etc. on their platfdrms while selling products online. There are also non-compliance on behalf of sellers of the products/commodities on these ecommerce platforms.
That, there are various laws, rules, regulations etc. that is being violated by these ecommerce platforms. Particularly saying the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 as amended from time to time, Consumer Protection (Ecommerce) Rules 2020, Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules 1955 etc. are being violated by these ecommerce platforms. That, these rules has been made applicable for the protection of rights of consumers and give them appropriate forums and legal remedy in case of any dispute or grievance.
That, the compliance of these rules are important for consumers to take informed decisions while purchasing products on these ecommerce platforms. These rules despite being made applicable years ago, the recent survey conducted and the results published in December 2021 by Local Circle — a survey conducting platform, various media reporting and personal experiences of common people shows the noncompliance and blatant violations of these rules by these platforms.
That, through this representation letter we at AGAM are praying to your authority to take appropriate actions with regards to the above stated matter.
Early actions are prayed for.

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