E-commerce sites must disclose food expiry date, MRP under new rule

Dept of Consumer Affairs issued a notification declaring that e-commerce sites will disclose details

E-commerce companies will now have to display the expiry dates and maximum retail prices of packaged food products under new rule designed to protect consumers from being sold old stuff.

Ordering packaged food from e-commerce sites has increased many folds, but the absence of manufacturing and expiry dates on such products often led to the product not being fully utilised.

A whooping 96 percent of the participants in a survey had agreed that e-commerce sites should mandatorily disclose manufacturing and expiry dates of such products sold on their sites since many products received by them were due to expire in 15-30 days.

In a big win for the consumers, the Department of Consumer Affairs amended the packaged commodity rules 2011 and issued a notification declaring that all e-Commerce sites will have to disclose actual product MRP and the best by date of the product they are listing.

The department has also enabled a new online consumer community called MRP, Weights and Measures Enforcement for all consumer grievances related to MRP.

Over 42 per cent consumers in the poll, conducted by citizen engagement platform LocalCircles, had reported products being listed for a much higher price on ecommerce sites than their actual price in the market.