India drops the bar on e-commerce seller's listings: You want to sell it? Tell us where it came from from then
- Reference: 1595301666
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/07/21/india_ecommerce_rules/
- Source link:
The requirement was floated in late June and linked to India’s current self-sufficiency drive and the ongoing border dispute with China. A new [1]draft [PDF] of the regulations published late last week requires e-commerce operators to publish “all relevant details about the goods and services offered for sale by the seller including country of origin which are necessary for enabling the consumer to make an informed decision at the pre-purchase stage.”
The rules also require sites to list the names and details of importers, plus details of third-party sellers using the e-commerce marketplace's involved.
With India having [2]banned 59 Chinese apps, and with its citizens actively boycotting goods and services from the Middle Kingdom, revealing country of origin and importers’ names has the potential to fuel further consumer activism.
India bans 59 apps it says have privacy, national security problems. In a massive coincidence, they’re all Chinese [3]READ MORE
Amazon’s Indian outpost has already started posting place-of-origin information, even though the new rules are yet to be gazetted.
Also in the new rules is a requirement to offer “guarantees related to the authenticity or genuineness of the imported products”.
Another rule states: “No inventory e-commerce entity shall falsely represent itself as a consumer and post reviews about goods and services or misrepresent the quality or the features of any goods or services.” There’s also a raft of requirements to publish information on who to contact to raise and settle grievances, either by email, fax, or landline and mobile telephone calls.
The new rules cover both individual e-tailers and marketplaces. ®
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[1] https://consumeraffairs.nic.in/sites/default/files/ECommerce%20Rule.pdf
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/29/india_bans_chinese_apps/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/29/india_bans_chinese_apps/
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
We need those rules too.
I agree with you on this one.
It's not a protectionist thing, it's a "making sure I'm buying from whom I _think_ I'm buying" issue.
My folks are frequent Amazon shoppers & while the item description says it's from one place (Canada, Mexico, etc), the customs info shows it actually came from somewhere else (Where the hell is Esoterica 6?) and if they have any issues requiring them to send the product back, it takes a Midas fortune to do so.
This especially irritates my mom when she buys something from an Etsi vendor that claims to be here in the States, only to find a customs form on the item when it arrives from Outer Elbonia. If she has to send it back because it wasn't what she ordered, it suddenly costs her more to ship than it took to buy it in the first place.
Laws that required the sellers to list country of origin, countries of importers, and all the rest would go a LONG way to informing the potential customer if they want to buy something that claims to be local but turns out to have been anything but.
I wouldn't mind seeing those here in the US, especially the ratings part.