The Union government on Tuesday said it has issued 202 notices to e-commerce players for incorrect declaration of 'country of origin' on products on their platforms in the last one year.
The maximum number of such violations were found with respect to electronic appliances, followed by clothing and home products.
Out of 217 notices, 202 notices were issued for violations relating to 'country of origin' norm. The rest 15 notices were for incorrect declaration of date of expiry/best before, address of manufacturer and importers, charging more than MRP, non-standard units and net quantity.
Most of the violations were related to electronic appliances, followed by clothing and home products.
A suo-moto cognizance of the matter was taken on the basis of complaints received from numerous consumers on the National Consumer Helpline portal.
Rule 6(5)(d) of the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 mandate any seller offering goods or services through a marketplace e-commerce entity to provide all relevant details about the goods and services offered for sale by the seller including country of origin, necessary for enabling the consumer to make an informed decision at the pre-purchase stage.
Rule 4(3) further stipulates that no e-commerce entity shall adopt any unfair trade practice, whether in the course of business on its platform or otherwise.
The consumer affairs ministry however has not revealed the names of these companies and when asked for reasons by media persons, secretary in the ministry Leena Nandan said that the whole exercise is being undertaken to alert the companies as well as consumers.
'The companies should be aware that they do whatever is legally maintainable in terms of consumer redressal of grievances. And consumers need to know their rights," she said during a press conference.
These official further informed that 76 companies have compounded their offences and more than ₹ 42.8 lakh crore have been collected by compounding of offences.