Draft rules may hit e-commerce sector ops, growth: IACC

Raising concerns over the draft ecommerce rules circulated by the government the IndoAmerican Chamber of Commerce IACC has said that the norms may impact the business operations of ecommerce companies and the growth of the sectorThe chamber in a letter to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs said the proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection ECommerce Rules 2020 may compound the burden of multiple regulations on the ecommerce sector by increasing compliance liabilities which may lead to impairing of the growth of the sectorIt was of the view that such a measure will affect investor sentiment globally especially with respect to ease of doing business in the countryThere are multiple provisions within the proposed amendments and there is a concern that they may impinge on the business operations of ecommerce companies IACC said in its letter Some provisions may also be read as pertaining to trade activities rather than overall consumer interest which are covered as stated in other regulatory formatsAlso read Foreign ecommerce companies violated Indian laws Piyush GoyalIt noted that having a principlebased lighttouch regulatory framework in place of a stringent definition as the amendments have proposed is a better approach to takeFurther according to the chamber ambiguous definitions of what constitutes a flash sale or what is fraudulently intercepting the ordinary course of business operations in a flash sale may lead to an inconsistent application of the rules and open the door to discretionary actionThe proposed provision is also defeating the premise of a level playing field between offline and online retail by creating an additional layer of complexities for online retail the IACC saidProtecting the interests of consumers is of paramount importance the IACC pointed out but at the same time regulatory action should nor stifle the growth of the sector which would ultimately hurt the interest of the consumer as well as small sellers retailers logistics providers and other stakeholders who depend on the sector for their livelihoodLast month the government circulated draft regulations that stop ecommerce entities from allowing any display or promotion of misleading advertisements whether in the course of business on their platforms or otherwise The draft regulations also prohibit flash salesFurther if the norms come into effect each ecommerce company would have to establish an adequate grievance redressal mechanism to address the number of grievances ordinarily received by such entitiesAmazon and Flipkart among others would have to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer a Resident Grievance Officer and a nodal contact person in IndiaThe Confederation of All India Traders CAIT which has been at the forefront of the fight for a level playing field for offline traders has hailed the proposed norms and urged the Centre against any dilution in these regulationsThe draft norms if put into effect are likely to hit Amazon which is based out of the US and the Walmartowned Flipkart the most sector experts suggestThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever