Central Govt Issues Notice to Amazon & Flipkart for Not Displaying Country of Origin Amid Sale Season

The Central government has issued notices to Amazon and Flipkart for not displaying the country of origin of the products sold on their websites amid the platforms’ ongoing annual sales event in India. The notices to each of the e-commerce platform were issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs on Friday that has further requested a response in the next 15 days – failing which action would be initiated against them as per the provisions of the Legal Metrology Rules, 2011. “It has come to the notice of the Department of Consumer Affairs that some of the e-commerce entities are not displaying the mandatory declaration as required under the Legal Metrology (packaged commodities) Rules, 2011,” the notice reads.

“Your explanation should reach to this office within 15 days…otherwise the action should be initiated against you with the available documents as per provisions of Act and Rules,” the notice added. The government’s notice over products’ country of origin comes at a time when there’s a massive push for products under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative. The campaign that translates to self-reliant India is the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making India “self-sustaining and self-generating.” It appears that the idea behind displaying the country of origin on the products is to make sure that customers are aware of full details at the time of purchase.

Meanwhile, both Amazon and Flipkart are hosting their annual sales event in India that will end next week. The mega sales event lists a host of products, ranging from smartphone to electronics to other products, bundled massive discounts and sale offers. Both the e-commerce platforms are yet to issue public statements to the government’s notices. This is an updating copy and will be updated once responses come in.