Govt probes ecommerce platforms over add-on charges for cash-on-delivery

The government has launched a probe into ecommerce platforms for allegedly charging customers extra for cash-on-delivery (CoD), after receiving complaints that the practice misleads buyers and violates consumer rights.

Consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi called such charges a “dark pattern” on Friday and said that the Department of Consumer Affairs has initiated an investigation.

“Strict action will be taken against those violating consumer rights, to ensure transparency and uphold fair practices in India’s growing e-commerce sector’’, Joshi said in a post on social media platform X.



He shared a post of a user’s Flipkart order which showed an ‘offer handling fee’ of Rs 99, ‘payment handling fee’ of Rs 49, and ‘protect promise fee’ of Rs 79. The post had comments from multiple users, with screenshots of their orders which had similar charges.

Ahead of the festive sales, ecommerce and food delivery platforms had raised their platform fee, ET had reported on September 4. Online fashion retailer Myntra had silently raised its fee to Rs 25 from Rs 20 for certain users right before the festive sales kicked.

Dark patterns refer to manipulative and deceptive tactics used by ecommerce, quick commerce, food delivery, and ride-hailing platforms to trick users into making unintended purchases or make it difficult for them to unsubscribe from membership programmes.

Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra did not reply to ET’s queries at the time of the publication of this story.

Increased scrutiny

The government has recently tightened its stance on unfair digital practices, expanding the list of prohibited dark patterns to include false urgency, basket sneaking, confirm shaming, forced action, subscription trap, drip pricing, disguised advertisements, malwares, trick wording, and nagging.

In June, the Central Consumer Protection Authority had directed e-commerce platforms to conduct self-audits within three months to identify and eliminate dark patterns.

The developments follow after consumers are increasingly highlighting their experiences on social media. In May, the government had also sent notices to new-age firms including Uber, Ola, Rapido, and Zepto for deploying dark patterns.

Quick commerce app Zepto has particularly been called out time and again by users over its alleged reliance on dark patterns to drive sales. Following this, the Bengaluru-based company has recently announced that it has revamped its app which also says ‘Zepto promises no hidden charges’ on its homepage.

Quick commerce companies have been adding a range of fees — from platform and handling charges to convenience, small-cart, and rain levies — to customer orders. These charges, which come on top of the standard delivery fees and vary across cities and platforms, range between Rs 6 and Rs 30 per order.