Flipkart, Amazon Receive Notices for not Displaying Mandatory Declarations, Including 'Country of Origin'

• As per the norms, an E-commerce must disclose all the mandatory declarations including the 'Country of Origin'.
• Both companies get notices and are asked to respond within 15 days.
• CAIT applauded the move and asked the Centre to investigate immediately the festive sales of both Amazon and Flipkart.

The Department of Consumer Affairs has issued notices to all the E-commerce entities including Amazon and Flipkart for not displaying the mandatory declarations, including the 'Country of Origin' on specific products.

As per the norms under the Legal Metrology Rules (Packaged Commodity, sub-rule 10 of rule 6 ), an E-commerce must disclose all the mandatory declarations such as name and address of the manufacturer, packer, importer; month; retail sale price of the package.

In addition to it, all e-commerce firms must comply with the norm to tag the 'Country of Origin' on all items being sold on their platforms. Recently, the call for such norms gained momentum due to the India-China border tussle.

In its notices to both the companies, the Department of Consumer Affairs said that on examining the concerned advertisements, it was found that the mandatory declarations were not mentioned as per the norms mentioned above.

The ministry asked both the companies to respond with the required information within 15 days else action will be initiated against them.

The move is also applauded by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which has been at the forefront of the campaign to mandate disclosure of 'Country of Origin'.

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CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal called the decision a bold move and asked the Centre to investigate immediately the festive sales of both Amazon and Flipkart.

Khandelwal also alleged that no product was in compliance with its obligation to mention the 'Country of Origin'.

This comes at a time when online sales are ramped up with the Mega Sales events like Flipkart’s ‘Big Billion Days’ sale and Amazon’s ‘Great Indian Festival’ sale.

It is also expected that all the major e-commerce firms will witness major sales of about $6.5 billion, a 34% year-over-year growth, over the next four weeks.

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