Indian Government imposed a series of consumer safeguard rules on all e-commerce firms including Amazon and Walmart owned Flipkart. These rules from now on will forbid the e-commerce companies to influence pricing, adopt unfair promotion methods or misrepresent the quality of goods and services.
E-commerce Guidelines for consumer protection 2019, published on the Department of Consumer Affairs website says that e-commerce companies must self declare compliance and also provide a way for customers to contact them directly. The companies also have to declare all details about their sellers including address website, email address and display terms of contract with the seller relating to return, refund, exchange, warranty, delivery, and mode of payments.
Prior to this, India also imposed strict rules on e-commerce firms after recording complaints from small shops and domestic sellers. The e-commerce giants in India such as Amazon and Flipkart are now banned to strike exclusive arrangements with sellers, offer deep discounts or hold any business interests in online merchants on their websites.
