Sushree Mohanty
The Delhi High Court issued a notice to Centre and others on a petition seeking direction to e-commerce websites to display maximum retail price (MRP), details of sellers, name of the manufacturer and country of origin on the products offered for sale at e-commerce websites.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notices to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and others to file a reply in response to the plea and listed the matter for further hearing on March 12, 2021.
The petition was filed by Ajay Kumar Singh, a Ghaziabad resident, through Advocate Rajesh K Pandit.
The petitioner has claimed that the consumers are facing great difficulty due to such details not being mentioned on e-commerce platform
The plea requests Centre to issue directions to ensure the compliance of Consumer Protection (Ecommerce) Rules, 2020 and Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodity) Rules, 2011.
“Important rights of consumers are also being violated as they are not made aware of the seller at the time of purchase,” the petitioner has claimed.
Additionally, the petition, filed through Advocate Rajesh K Pandit states that the economy of the country would suffer in the event of e-commerce websites violating standard rules.
He further added that the key objective of the amendment in law has been to perceive the role of e-commerce and make these companies responsible for disclosing or revealing all data/information that is relevant to the consumer for decision-making prior to purchase or while making a buying decision or post the purchase, to address grievances.
The petitioner also said that upon visiting the digital platforms of various companies’ mobile app/website, it is evident that the products are offered for sale without adequate disclosure of information to the customers as per law.
These companies are outrageously flouting the government norms and not following the mandatory guidelines under Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodity) Rules 2011 and Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules 2020 and thereby are forcing the customers to buy products with inadequate information regarding the product, its price and the seller, the plea said.
