Govt to strengthen ways to fix e-commerce complaints

Government today decided to add some muscle to the mechanism for resolving growing complaints against e-commerce players and warned them of stringent action for not responding to its queries on customer grievances.
Nearly 46 companies, including Flipkart, Xiaomi, Olz.In and Bookmyoffer.Com, have not been responding to mails sent to them with regard to redressal of such grievances, it said.
A decision in this regard was taken after Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman raised the issue in a meeting with Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan here.
"The commerce minister said her ministry was getting many consumer complaints against e-commerce firms. We discussed the ways to sort out such complaints. We decided to jointly address the complaints related to e-commerce," Paswan told reporters after the meeting.

The consumer affairs ministry too has received such complaints and has been taking action against e-commerce players selling inferior quality products or services, he said.
However, a separate cell comprising joint secretary-level officers from both the ministries will be formed for better coordination in handling such complaints, he added.

Paswan further said the government has a tie-up with 200-odd e-commerce companies and has been directly resolving the complaints with them.
"But there are about 46 companies which have not responded to our mails sent to them with regard to redressal of customer grievances. We are going to take stringent action against such companies," the minister said.

Country Club, Shopclues.Com, Teleskyshop, Swipetelecom, Sify Online Shopping, Sharekhand.Com, Rechargeitnow, Myntra.Com, Easemytrip and Jungle.Com are among the 46 companies, as per the government data.
"If they do not respond, we will conduct an enquiry of such companies to ascertain whether they are genuine or fake and take action accordingly," the minister added.
To regulate e-commerce platforms, Paswan said the government has provided such a provision in the draft law on consumer protection.