New E-commerce Norms
Set to become Mandatory by Year-End
E-commerce
guidelines, which are currently advisory in nature, will become mandatory for
the firms dabbling in online business once the rules are framed for the
recently passed Consumer Protection Act, 2019, Minister for Consumer Affairs,
Ram Vilas Paswan, said on Tuesday, 28 August 2019.
The
Minister, who convened a meeting of Members of Parliament who participated in
the discussions on the Act in Parliament as well as other experts to brainstorm
on the proposed rules, said the Ministry would invite suggestions on the rules
by September 15 and the rules would be notified by December.
The
e-commerce rules have become important because of the explosive growth being
witnessed by the sector due to the increase in the number of online users,
growing penetration of smartphones and the rising popularity of social media
platforms. According to a recent Morgan Stanley report, the e-commerce sector
in India is estimated to reach $230 billion by 2028, accounting for 10 per cent
of India’s retail trade.
No ambiguity
He said
there is no ambiguity whether medical care and hospitals would come under the
purview of the new Consumer Protection Act, unlike the previous Act enacted in
1986. The new Act will cover all the services, even if all of them have not
been listed in the Act, the Minister explained.
“Not
specifically mentioning healthcare in the definition of service will not make
any difference to its applicability considering that the definition of service
mentions few kind of services but is not limited to those specifically
mentioned,” the Ministry of Consumer Affairs officials present at the meeting
said. Further clarifying they said, the Act defines ‘consumer’ as a person who
buys any goods or hires or avails any service for a consideration. So, all paid
services would be covered and the free services are excluded, they added.
Apart
from healthcare, education, banking and electricity are also under the ambit of
the Act.
The
meeting also discussed the e-commerce at length. According to a document
circulated for the meeting, “The (e-commerce) guidelines, which will be
converted to Rules, endeavour to take care of the
interests of consumers prior to purchase, at the time of purchase,
post-purchase and provide for the grievance redressal
mechanism.”
Accordingly,
the e-commerce entities need to display terms of contract with the seller
relating to return, refund, exchange, warranty/guarantee, delivery/shipment
mode of payment and grievance redressal mechanism, it
said. As per the circulated draft guidelines, the e-commerce firms have to give
a 14-day deadline for refund requests, display details of sellers supplying
goods and services on their Websites and moot the procedure to resolve consumer
complaints.
Later,
talking to the media, Paswan said all suggestions
received within the stipulated time period will be considered within the legal
framework while drafting the rules and regulations.
Among
the MPS who participated in the discussions were former BJP Minister Vijay Goel, Aam Aadmi
Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and CPI MP Binoy Viswam.