The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Union government on a petition seeking a direction to e-commerce websites to display the Maximum Retail Price (MRP), the seller details, the name of the manufacturer and the country of origin on products.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh asked the authorities and three e-commerce portals to submit their responses on the petition by March 12, the next date of hearing.
The petition filed by one Ajay Kumar Singh said meesho.com, glowroad.com, shop101.com were violating the explicit provisions of law and facilitating sellers and resellers to violate the same.
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The plea claimed that the products were offered for sale without adequate disclosure of information to customers as per law. “These companies are flagrantly flouting the Government norms and not following the mandatory guidelines under Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodity) Rules 2011 and Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules 2020,” it said.
‘Serious violation of law’
Non-mention of the MRP was a serious violation of law as the websites were allowing their seller to sell their products at any price, which was generally higher than one mentioned by the manufacturer, it stated.
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“Seller details are not provided to the customer on the platform or on the product invoice i.e. the seller identity is not disclosed to the customer either pre purchase or post purchase,” it said, adding that since no seller details were mentioned, the mandatory GST of the seller was also not being displayed on the invoice.
It further claimed that the grievance officer contact number and details were not provided by these portals.