7,200 complaints filed over fake goods sold by e-commerce firms in January-June

New Delhi, Aug 6 As many as 7, 221 grievances related to the sale of spurious, fake and duplicate products in the e-commerce sector have been registered in the 6-month period from Jan to June this year on the National Consumer Helpline, up from 4,997 such complaints registered during the entire year in 2024, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

During FY 2024-25, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has carried out a total of 22 search and seizure operations at warehouses associated with e-commerce platforms. These include three search and seizure operations each in the states of Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, and Maharashtra; two search and seizure operations each in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu; and one search and seizure operation each in Gujarat, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs B.L.Verma said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The minister said that to safeguard the interests of consumers from unfair trade practices in e-commerce, the Department of Consumer Affairs has notified the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020. These rules outline the responsibilities of e-commerce entities and specify the liabilities of marketplace and inventory e-commerce entities, including provisions for consumer grievance redressal.

In terms of the provisions of these rules, e-commerce entities are not allowed to manipulate the price of goods or services offered on their platforms to gain unreasonable profit by imposing on consumers any unjustified price having regard to the prevailing market conditions.

The rules also bar these entities from discriminating between consumers of the same class or making any arbitrary classification of consumers affecting their rights under the Act.

Besides, the rules provide that no e-commerce entity shall adopt any unfair trade practice, whether in the course of business on its platform or otherwise.

On National Consumer Day 2024, 13 major e-commerce companies, including Reliance Retail, Tata Sons Group, Zomato, Ola and Swiggy, signed the “safety pledge” finalised by the Department to ensure consumer safety.

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has been set up to prevent consumer detriment arising from unfair trade practices and to initiate class action, including the enforcement of recalls, refunds and return of products. Its core mandate is to prevent and regulate false or misleading advertisements which are prejudicial to the public interest.

The CCPA has also issued “Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023,” listing 13 specified dark patterns identified in the e-commerce sector. These dark patterns include false urgency, basket sneaking, confirm shaming, forced action, subscription trap, interface interference, bait and switch, drip pricing, disguised advertisements, nagging, trick wording, SaaS billing, and rogue malware.

Further, an "Advisory in terms of Consumer Protection Act, 2019 on Self-Audit by E-Commerce Platforms for detecting the Dark Patterns on their platforms to create a fair, ethical and consumer-centric digital ecosystem" was issued by the CCPA on June 5.

The CCPA has also notified the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements. These include conditions for an advertisement to be non-misleading and valid; certain stipulations in respect of bait advertisements and free claim advertisements; and duties of manufacturer, service provider, advertiser and advertising agency, the minister said.

Action is taken by the CCPA against various entities, including e-commerce platforms, for affecting consumers, as a class, for violation of consumer rights, false and misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices as defined under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, he added.

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