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Kavita Rathore

RIGHTS OF A CONSUMER IN THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT


This article is written by our Editor Kavita Rathore who is a 4th Year Student at Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai.





Are there any consumer rights for buying products online? What if the products don’t meet our expectations? Whom should we complain about it? What is the procedure for it?


The answer is simple yes there is the consumer rights act 2015 for any product or service physical or digital or in-store or if you buy something without seeing it in the person like buying something online if they meet the given standards

The goods purchased should be of good quality and should not be damaged or faulty. Second-hand goods are not counted in this category.

The goods should fit the criteria of being used for the purpose for which they were supplied.

Your goods and service must match the description product or sample shown when you bought it.

E-commerce (commerce using internet platforms) is a fast-growing mode for the purchase or sale of goods and services. India’s retail market is highly unorganized. As of 2021, organized retail (physical shops) comprises 10% of the retail market, while e-commerce only accounts for about 3%. E-commerce is expected to provide the following benefits: (i) increase in consumer choice, (ii) lower entry barriers for new firms (makes it easier to find customers online), (iii) improvements in efficiency and competitiveness of the industry.

The government made certain amendments to the consumer protection act in 2020 after getting a lot of complaints regarding online purchases. The government noticed that the unfortunate incidents have negatively impacted the consumer and business sentiment in the market. The continuous complaints regarding the online fraud and unfair trade practices and engaging in the manipulative search practices only to provide special treatment to some sellers or preferential treatment, impinging the free choice of the consumers, selling goods close to expiration. The new rules will apply to all the retailers from the electronic departments whether Indian or foreigners but their goods and services must be rendered to the Indian consumers. The new rules set up by the government empower the central government to take strict actions against unfair and misleading trade practices like direct selling of goods. The new guidelines and rules set up imply to the e-retailers saying that the customer’s issues and grievances should be addressed positively and prevent discriminating against their merchants on their online platforms. To protect the interest of the consumers the government led certain amendments and these are:

The revised definition of e-commerce has been set up by the government that says e-commerce will also include the entities engaged by an e-commerce entity for the fulfillment of orders and also the third party engaged in it. Any entities engaged in the fulfillment of orders include activities such as warehousing and packaging of goods and delivery of goods. It can include entities such as warehousing and certain small-scale industries and logistic companies whose nature of business is not e-commerce. For example, any neighboring shop can set up a website and can be in a partnership with the courier. (i) As part of the draft rules the local courier service is required to appoint a nodal officer to coordinate with the law enforcement. (ii) register itself with the department of industry and trade (iii) to become the partner in the convergence process of the National consumer helpline of the central government.

As, the third party or the related party includes an associate company or the one holding the subsidiary, an investing company, or a public company where the partners or relatives share the two percent shares of the company or a firm or a private company.

Small physical stores are allowed to sell their products just by creating a website. For example, a small book shop can create a website and can deliver its products to buyers. There is only one restriction on these sellers and buyers and that is that they need to appoint a nodal officer and a chief compliance officer 24X7 to comply with the law enforcement.

The new draft rules also forbid certain selling practices like misleading and cross-selling practices. These restrictions are not applied to the market places but the inventory products. This is because the marketplaces only act as a platform for the transaction of goods from sellers to the buyers they are not responsible for the selling of goods and services to the end consumers. The draft rules also abide by misrepresentation of certain products and services for example promotion of false goods and services, advertising of goods and services giving the false guarantee of the product, or representation which may be considered unfair trade practice, and deliberately concealing information. Since the marketplace does not hold the inventory it can assume whether the advertisement on its platform is misleading or not.

Note that the Information Technology Act, 2000 (and its Rules) provides immunity for intermediaries from liability for hosting or transmitting third-party information; this would cover e-commerce marketplaces such as an auction website.

Since the marketplaces cannot be considered as sellers of any particular goods as they themselves are not selling any goods. Marketplaces only facilitates transaction between a seller and a buyer. And also, under the new rules of the FDI policy marketplace e-commerce entities to enter into the transaction with the sellers who are registered on its platform on a business to business basis unlike the draft rules which put bar on the marketplace e-commerce entities for selling goods or services to any person who is registered as a seller on its platform.

The Draft Rules prohibit marketplace e-commerce entities: (i) listing similar enterprises as sellers on their platform, (ii) sharing information for the unfair advantage of its linked enterprises. It also prohibits the linked enterprise for doing any sort of fraud that interdicts marketplace e commerce itself. As per the Draft Rules, two enterprises will be linked entities if there exists any relationship of mutual interest, as may be prescribed. It is unclear why a clause under delegated legislation (Draft Rules) has a provision to be notified through further Rules.

Under the new rules, the e-commerce entities cannot impose cancellation charges if any person cancels the order after its confirmation on the online platform unless the sellers are ready to pay the same price if the order has been canceled from their side.

They are not allowed to manipulate the price of the products offered on their platform just to gain unreasonable profits discriminate against consumers of the same class or make any arbitrary classification of the consumers which can affect their rights.

Further, e-commerce needs to display the details about the payment methods. The security must be checked for the payment methods of the consumers like fees charges payable by the users and the contact information among other details of the relevant service provider. They also need to provide the details about their business and whether it has been registered or not. The duty implies on the sellers to provide details related to their geographic area, customer care number, their rating feedback about the sellers.


Conclusion

Overall, the conclusion is that the new e-commerce rules had provided benefits to the consumers by providing safer services to consumers. As e-commerce has been a great services provider during this pandemic. The government has meticulously covered every aspect of it with relation to safety and to provide the expected and beneficial services to the customers. Before the implementation of new guidelines, it created a fiasco among the users regarding online purchases and fraud. The new guidelines have guaranteed safety in their purchases.

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