Flipkart, Amazon Cannot Charge Cancellation Fees, Manipulate Price: New E-Commerce Rules 2020

Govt has issued new consumer protection rules for ecommerce industry, and as per the provisions of the law, no ecommerce portal can now charge cancellation fees from the users, once the payment has been made.

Besides, ecommerce portals also cannot manipulate price to gain new business and new users.

Govt’s New Rule: No Cancellation Fees From Users

Last week, Govt of India notified new Consumer Protection Rules of 2020 for all businesses, which also includes ecommerce.

Termed as Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, the new rules clearly tells that the ecommerce portals such as Amazon, Flipkart and others cannot charge a cancellation fee from the users, once they have made the payment.

This will provide relief to Indian e-shoppers, who are often stuck after making the payments, and canceling the orders become a big hassle.

At the same time, in case the ecommerce portal cancels the order after the payment has been made, then they will need to pay a penalty.

Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said last week, “The e-commerce rules will apply to all electronic retailers offering goods and services to Indian consumers, whether registered in India or overseas,” 

Ecommerce Portals Cannot Manipulate Price

The new rules also state that the ecommerce portals are not allowed to “manipulate the price”, in order to gain business, sales and new users. Such manipulation of price has been termed as a discriminatory practice.

TaxScan reported: “Companies are also not allowed to “manipulate the price” of goods and services offered on their platforms to gain unreasonable profit or discriminate between consumers of the same class or make any arbitrary classification of consumers affecting their rights under the Act.”

All ecommerce portals are now mandated to inform the country of origin on all the products, information about the sellers, tracking those sellers whose products have been banned under Copyright Act, 1957, the Trade Marks Act, 1999 or the Information Technology Act, 2000, and still selling them.

A mandatory consumer redressal contact has also been put forth in the new rules.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.