NEW DELHI: The phenomenal growth of the digital marketplace has also led to a massive spike in complaints about goods and services sourced online. The number of complaints against digital business platforms has gone up by 1500 per cent over the last four years. Most of them are related to the delivery of fake products, damaged or substandard items, delay in refund of money etc.
The Consumer Affairs Ministry said complaints against e-commerce platforms have risen from just 5,204 in 2013-14 to 78,000 in 2017-18. A senior official in the ministry said the majority of the complaints (about 22 per cent) were related to refunds. “In many cases, consumers are duped by the companies as the purchase amount for orders booked by consumers is deducted by the e-Commerce company but the order is not actually delivered to consumers,” he said. Defective products comprise the second largest segment of complaints, at 17 per cent of the total complaints registered. Other complaints include the deficiency in services, non-delivery of products, and delivery of wrong product, to name just a few.
“Consumers complain that the amount got deducted, but they were not provided the promised services. It has also been seen that many e-commerce companies do not mention the complete grievance redressal mechanism with the hierarchy on their websites and consumers have to face difficulties in redressal of complaints,” said the official. Consumer Rights expert Bejon Misra sees it as a natural phenomenon. “Complaints are bound to rise as people prefer to buy products online. But what is more important and shocking is that there are complaints about fake products, damaged products and refund related issues, which is a serious matter which should be looked into by the authorities,” he said.
Officials said there is a national consumer helpline to address such issues, and people can also approach consumer courts. However, Misra, who is the founder of Consumer online foundation, says consumers have been given the least priority by the state governments. “Nobody wants to go to consumer court for a product of `500 or so. But, it is the duty of authorities to protect the consumers with regulations. Here, responsibility lies with the state government and they should come out with stringent punishment. But, that is not happening” he says.
Even the government admits that complaints against e-commerce platforms are on the rise. “Consumers are facing problems while doing transactions in e-commerce,” Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha this week. He said complaints relating to defective and damaged goods and non-delivery of products are being regularly received by the National Consumer Helpline.
Legal shield
On January 5, Centre tabled the Consumer Protection Bill, 2018 in the Lok Sabha which seeks to provide for an executive agency, Central Consumer Protection Authority, to prevent unfair trade practices. It has provisions for framing rules for preventing such practices in e-commerce.