Centre issues notice to Amazon and Flipkart for not displaying obligatory information on products

The Centre on Friday served notices to e-trade majors Amazon and Flipkart for non-announcement of obligatory disclosure, along with the ‘Country of Origin’ on particular products.

The notices were issued through the Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. While notices were issued to Amazon and Flipkart, the branch has requested the states to make certain compliance of guidelines through all e-commerce corporations.

In its notices to each the corporations, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs stated that on inspecting the involved advertisements, it was discovered that the required declarations had been not stated as per the norms under the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodity) Rules.

The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules affords that an e-commerce entity has to make certain that the required declarations (including the country of origin), besides the month and 12 months wherein the commodity is manufactured or packed, “will be displayed on the virtual and electronic network used for e-commerce transactions”.

In the case of a marketplace version of e-commerce, the duty of the correctness of the declarations lies with the producer or vendor or provider or importer.

The ministry requested both the corporations to provide the specified records and response to the notice within 15 days else action will be initiated in opposition to them.

All e-commerce corporations had to follow the norm to tag the ‘Country of Origin’ on all objects being bought on their platforms by September 30.

Recently, the decision for such norms received momentum because of the India-China border tussle.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which has been at the vanguard of the marketing campaign to mandate disclosure of ‘Country of Origin’, applauded the government’s move.