Regulatory changes planned to enhance protection for online shoppers

NEW DELHI: The Department of Consumer Affairs is changing regulations to provide better protection to online shoppers and is providing a digital push for grievance redressal and other related issues.

“Ecommerce companies are increasingly coming under our national consumer helpline convergence programme, where consumer grievances entered online are being addressed expeditiously,” Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan said at a World Consumer Rights Day event in the city on Wednesday.

“Efforts are being made in the regulatory framework to enhance consumer protection in the ecommerce sector, which is expanding rapidly,” said Hem Pande, secretary in the Department of Consumer Affairs. “There exist some gaps in legislative and regulatory framework when it comes to ecommerce in the country. We are building a digital world that the consumer can trust.”

Privacy and data protection come across as the major barriers in ecommerce today, Pande said.

Of the complaints received on the department’s national consumer helpline, about 20% are against ecommerce companies, the secretary said.

The new Consumer Protection Bill, which is expected to be passed in the current session of Parliament, will have special provisions related to ecommerce in India, Paswan said.

The government is involved in transformative programmes, whether it is Digital India, Make in India or Start Up India, said Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Law & Justice and Electronics & IT, who was present at the event. “We want to make India a technologically empowered society. The country wants to be a leader of the digital revolution.”

Paswan said the rules are being amended to require ecommerce companies to display mandatory declarations on their sites if packaged commodities such as rice, pulses and salt are offered for sale on online platforms. These declarations include information on place of manufacture, maximum retail price, ingredients and product expiry date.

R Chandrasekhar, president of Nasscom, said cases of digital payment failures are being seen across options such as United Payment Interface and payment wallets.
Technology should be used as an enabler for consumer rights rather than become a cause of worry.

Chandrasekhar added India should look at best international practices to tackle security breaches rather than follow a trial-and-error method.