‘Don’t sell goods from your own firms, give equal opportunity to everyone’
‘Don’t sell goods from your own firms, give equal opportunity to everyone’
The Department of Consumer Affairs is in the process of bringing in revised e-commerce rules that, among the amendments, will also push for “algorithmic fairness” on these markets, so that many of these entities can pass on the benefits to wholly or partially owned sellers. By them and for small businesses provide an equal opportunity.
The e-commerce rules were first notified on July 23, 2020, and later amended on May 17, 2021. A new revision is expected soon.
consumer’s right
talking to HinduConsumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said that “transparency” and “fairness” are key to protecting consumer rights in a digital economy. “Nothing should be hidden from the end user, and the choice must also be explained to them, starting with the algorithm that determines the search result. The consumer has the right to know that the product of a certain firm is always available during the search. Why comes on top of tally and why product gets pushed down,” he explained.
Last month, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents around 8 crore small and medium traders, in a letter to the consumer affairs department, demanded an “immediate inquiry”. Citing the case of “Amazon”, CAIT said that instead of acting as a mere bridge between buyer and seller, it was indulging in practices that were a major conflict of interest by Amazon. “It destroys and wipes out small and independent third party sellers in e-commerce,” the letter said. It reported that the issue was under investigation at Amazon.
“It has been reported that Amazon is copying third party user data and abusing it for their own selfish purposes…[Amazon] It first copies this data and then creates its own private label on the basis of such data. This data is an indication of consumer buying – tastes and trends and is of immense value to third-party sellers, who are being devoid of it by Amazon,” alleged Kat.
Complicated Web of Favorite Vendors
The industry body further observed that Amazon was not only involved in controlling inventory through its related party sellers such as Cloudtail and Apario and a few other preferred sellers, but had also created a complex web of preferred sellers and service providers, which it preferred. Was. Low/zero commission charges and platform charges, fast one day delivery, best payout discounts and treatment as leading visibility on the market among others.
A “disclosure clause” was also placed in the amended rules. Portals often announce flash sales making the grand claim of “lowest prices”. Before making such claims, they should disclose the lowest price at which they sold the product.
Product reviews will come under this section. Customer choice was often determined by the number of stars a product carried. Portals will have to specify on what basis the rating is being earned. Product reviews should be checked by the portal to ensure that they were genuine and not bot-generated to promote some products over others. This practice was prevalent in some countries where e-commerce websites have come up with their own frameworks to eliminate fake product reviews.