Govt receives over 1,300 complaints against e-commerce companies

Govt clarifies that there is no proposal to bring in a separate law to regulate e-commerce platforms

Government has received over 1,300 complaints against direct selling and e-commerce companies till December 2016, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

It also made clear that there is no proposal to bring in a separate law to regulate e-commerce platforms.

Placing the details of complaints received by its National Consumer Helpline against direct selling and e-commerce companies in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs C R Chaudhary said: "The received complaints were dealt with as per consumer grievance redressal procedure."

A consumer can file a complaint relating to e-commerce transactions in the appropriate consumer forum established under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, he said in his written reply to the Lower House.

According to the data, 1,386 complaints have been received up to December 2016.

A maximum of 449 complaints were against bookmyoffer.Com, followed by e-bay (135), snapdeal.Com (120), amazon.In (114), flipkart.Com (92), whaaky.Com (79), shopclues.Com (47), and paytm.Com (46).

Around 15 complaints were received against Homeshop 18, followed by jabong.Com (15), naaptol.Com (13), Shop CJ Network India (10), askmebazar.Com (6) and myntra.Com (2) during this period, the data showed.

The minister also said there is no proposal for setting up of National Consumer Safety Authority.

However, the Consumer Protection Bill, 2015, already introduced in Parliament, seeks to provide setting up of a central consumer protection authority to look into, inter alia, unfair trade practices, he added.