Delhi High Court Issues Notice to Centre, Others on Plea Seeking Direction to E-commerce Website to Display MRP, Seller Details

New Delhi, February 2: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday 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 DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh asked the Centre and others to file reply on the plea and listed the matter for further hearing on March 12. The plea was filed by Ajay Kumar Singh through advocate Rajesh K Pandit. The petitioner has sought to pass directing the respondent Centre to issue directions to ensure the compliance of Consumer Protection (Ecommerce) Rules, 2020 and Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodity) Rules, 2011. CAIT Seeks Action Against Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy and Others E-Commerce Entities for 'Daylight Robbery'.

Recognising the growing relevance of e-commerce in the country and in order to protect the interest of the Consumers, the Government of India in the year 2017 amended the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodity) Rules, 2011 and thereafter promulgated Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules 2020, the petitioner said. He further added the key objective of the change in law has been to recognise the role of e-commerce and make e-commerce companies accountable for displaying or disclosing all information that is relevant to the consumers prior to purchase while making a buying decision or information that may be relevant to the consumers post the purchase to address grievances.

Based on the newspaper reports it is understood that the Government of India has been actively monitoring e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal and enforcing the compliance strictly, the petition said.

The petitioner 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 flagrantly 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 inducing the customers to buy products with inadequate information regarding the product, its price and the seller, the plea said.