Since October 2020, The Department of Consumer Affairs and its legal metrology division have send notices to 448 e-commerce companies after they were found to violate the rules.
A fee of Rs. 77,90,500 has been collected from these companies that include top e-commerce giants like Amazon India, Bengaluru-based Meesho,amongst others.
Most of the violations were about the display of the origin country of the product and other details on their website or portal.
The metrology division, under the department of Consumer Affairs Ministry, is responsible for looking into the origin country of products sold on e-commerce marketplaces.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution shared this in a written response to questions raised in the Lok Sabha “on whether the Government proposes to evolve a proper mechanism for conducting regular checks on e-commerce platforms with rules related to display of maximum retail price, seller details, name of manufacturer and country of origin.”
The rule on the country of origin has become critical since the India-China border conflict in 2020.
In 2020, it was made mandatory by the Government for e-tailers to show the country of origin for products and other information such as the MRP and seller details on their platforms.
A recent survey of LocalCircles, a community social media platform, shows that one in every two consumers who shop online typically cannot find the MRP and country-of-origin information.
