PIL seeks clear MRP, seller details of products sold by e-com sites; Delhi HC asks for Centre's stand

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Tuesday sought response of the Centre on a PIL seeking a direction to e-commerce websites to prominently display names of manufacturers, country of origin and MRP of products sold on their platforms.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notices to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Fashnear Technologies Pvt Ltd, Sociofy Enterprise Pvt Ltd and O (1) India Pvt Ltd, which own e-commerce websites, and sought their stand on the plea by March 12.

Fashnear, Sociofy and O(1) own e-commerce websites Meesho, Glowroad and Shop101, respectively.

The petition, by Ghaziabad resident Ajay Kumar Singh, has claimed that the consumers are facing great difficulty due to such details not being mentioned on e-commerce platforms.

Singh has said he regularly shops from e-commerce websites and according to research done by him, the requirements mandated under the Consumer Protection (Ecommerce) Rules, 2020 and Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 are not complied with by these e-commerce websites.

"Economy of the entire nation would suffer in the event the e-commerce websites continue not to mention the MRP, seller details, manufacturing country/country of origin of products on e-commerce websites.

Since the MRP of the product is not displayed the customers are forced to buy the product at a higher cost fixed by the manufacturers.

"Important rights of consumers are also being violated as they are not made aware of the seller at the time of purchase," the petition, filed through advocate Rajesh K Pandit, has claimed.

It has sought directions to the ministry and the owners of the three e-commerce sites to ensure that mandatory declarations of products offered for sale are displayed on websites and Legal Metrology Act, 2009 and Consumer Protection Act, 2019 complied with.