Complaints against e-commerce players being looked into: Govt

On Friday, the minister stated, to additional strengthen the regulatory framework for prevention of unfair commerce practices in e-commerce, the federal government has sought solutions on the proposed amendments to the Shopper Safety (e-Commerce) Guidelines, 2020.

The federal government has forwarded complaints towards e-commerce gamers about deep discounting, predatory pricing and the misuse of market dominance to related companies for “vital examination and investigation”, Parliament was knowledgeable on Friday.

The complaints have been acquired from merchants, retailers and trade associations, minister of state for commerce and trade Som Parkash stated in a written reply within the Rajya Sabha.

FE had earlier reported that in December 2020, the commerce and trade ministry had written to the Reserve Financial institution of India and the enforcement directorate to take “vital motion” on allegations made by a key merchants’ physique towards Amazon, Flipkart and Walmart regarding the violations of FDI and different related guidelines. For his or her half, the e-commerce gamers have denied the fees and maintained that they abide by the related guidelines.

In its representations to the federal government, the Confederation of All India Merchants (CAIT) had accused each Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart of exploiting loopholes in guidelines and regularly violating FDI insurance policies regarding e-commerce by clandestinely providing reductions by means of sellers on their platforms, amongst others.

On Friday, the minister stated, to additional strengthen the regulatory framework for prevention of unfair commerce practices in e-commerce, the federal government has sought solutions on the proposed amendments to the Shopper Safety (e-Commerce) Guidelines, 2020.

Feedback from many stakeholders on the draft e-commerce coverage have been acquired regarding definition of e-commerce, position of market entities and liabilities of e-commerce firms, amongst different associated points, he added.

Already, the draft e-commerce coverage beneath the buyer safety Act has brought on appreciable unease amongst e-tailers for a bunch of modifications, together with the ban of “particular flash gross sales” by e-commerce gamers.

Lately, commerce and trade minister Piyush Goyal stated the federal government might problem a clarification on its international direct funding (FDI) coverage for e-commerce “very shortly”. Numerous stories have instructed that the federal government might tighten the FDI norms that would power gamers like Amazon and Flipkart to restructure their present advertising and marketing tie-ups.