Nudging users towards select sellers that offer e-commerce websites high commission is equivalent to cheating the people, consumer affairs minister Piyush Goyal said during a podcast on Wednesday.
“.so when an e-commerce site…let’s say uses an algorithm and guides customer choice towards one direction whoever gives them the highest premium or highest commission… I think that is wrong as somebody else is cheating the public in another way,” Goyal said.
Goyal’s statement comes soon after the government took note of several exploitative practices by e-commerce websites such as ‘dark patterns’, asking them to create a self-regulatory framework to stop such practices.
Dark patterns refer to practices which deliberately exploit the consumers on the internet, like adding items to a shopping cart even though a user has not opted for it, changing the price of a product at the time of checking out or even creating a false sense of urgency to advance a buying decision.
“Every field has its good and bad moments, and good and bad attributes…there will be few black sheeps in every profession, you can’t wish them away…obviously you desire that they don’t successful and they don’t succeed in their ways, but we see all around us whether its in business, whether it’s in politics, whether it’s in bureaucracy…so much so there it could be in every walk of life including technology world,” Goyal stated.
Earlier the government had released guidelines to check fake reviews and unverified star ratings on e-commerce websites, hotels, and travel booking platforms.
The Department of Consumer Affairs had launched a set of rules to protect the consumer interest from fake and deceptive reviews in e-commerce. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said the standards will have guiding principles as integrity, accuracy, privacy, security, transparency, accessibility and responsiveness. The consumers who would review the products will have to first accept the terms and conditions, providing contact information.
The review administrator will have to ensure the safeguarding personal information and training of the staff.
The ministry had said, “Once made mandatory, if required, the violation of the standards by any entity may be considered as an unfair trade practice or violation of consumer rights and a consumer may submit such grievances to the National Consumer Helpline, Consumer Commissions or the CCPA.“
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Updated: 14 Jun 2023, 11:07 PM IST