Recently, the Indian government has rolled out draft guidelines for e-commerce platforms.
These guidelines after approval will be mandating self-regulatory measures to protect consumers from fraudulent practices amid the fast-growing digital shopping landscape in India.
Draft Rules For E-commerce Platforms
These draft guidelines which is titled
‘E-commerce-Principles and Guidelines for Self Governance’, have been prepared by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) under the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry’s supervision.
Now it is seeking stakeholder comments by February 15.
As per this draft, “…the rise of e-commerce has introduced new challenges, particularly in terms of consumer protection and trust. The importance of clear and effective rules and norms for self-governance in e-commerce cannot be further emphasized in this context.”
This framework talks about introducing three-phase principles including pre-transaction, contract formation, and post-transaction stages for e-commerce operations.
Further, the platforms must conduct thorough KYC of business partners, especially third-party sellers as per the pre-transaction requirements.
What Are The Draft Guidelines For E-commerce Platforms?
Moving ahead, the guidelines ask about detailed product listings which include title, seller contact details, identification number, and supporting media.
This would help the consumers to assess product utility and features.
Notably, the platforms must display importer, packer, and seller details prominently for imported goods.
When it comes to the contract formation, the platforms must record consumer consent, enable transaction review, and maintain transparent policies for cancellation, returns, and refunds.
The platforms must maintain complete transactions and they should be made accessible to consumers as per applicable laws.
Moreover, these guidelines talk about diverse payment options such as credit/debit cards, mobile payments, e-wallets, and bank transfers, with full disclosure of processing charges.
These platforms have to implement secure payment systems having encryption and two-factor authentication.
In case of recurring payments, the draft requires clear disclosure of duration, intervals, and amounts, along with simple opt-out procedures.
Besides this the Cash-on-delivery refunds must also be processed as per consumer preference.
Under the Post-transaction guidelines, it mandates specifying clear timelines for refunds, replacements, and exchanges, with additional provisions for counterfeit products.
In addition to this, the platforms must ensure timely delivery notifications whether handled internally or by third-party providers.
This draft also talks about the prohibition of sale of the banned products as it requires platforms to maintain monitoring mechanisms and seller background checks.
The platforms should have a ready-made list of banned products that must be available during seller onboarding, along with consumer reporting mechanisms for violations.
Basically, these guidelines are there to help E-commerce entities as they must ensure neutral operations, offering level-playing field to all stakeholders.
These guidelines explicitly talk about the prohibition of preferential treatment to any sellers or service providers.
This framework helps in mandating policies which will combat counterfeit products and requires sellers to ensure accurate product descriptions and content.
In order to maintain listing accuracy, the platforms must conduct periodic seller reviews.
For the consumer reviews and ratings, all of them must comply with IS 19000:2022 standards for online consumer reviews, covering collection, moderation, and publication processes.
Further emphasizing the data protection compliance throughout e-commerce operations.
