E‑commerce now covered under Consumer Protection Act

E‑commerce oper­a­tions are already cov­ered under the Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion Act, 1986, Min­is­ter of State for Food and Con­sumer Affairs Raosa­heb Patil Danve said in a writ­ten reply to the Lok Sab­ha.  He was reply­ing to a query whether there is any pro­pos­al to bring e‑commerce oper­a­tions under the Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion Law in view of com­plaints of cheat­ing and oth­er mal­prac­tices by such companies.

“Goods which are imported/manufactured are cleared on pay­ment of duty of customs/central excise, as the case may be, at the time of import/clearance from the fac­to­ry. There­fore, as far as the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment is con­cerned, there is no loss to indi­rect tax rev­enue due to expan­sion of e‑commerce,” Danve said.

The Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion Act pro­vides for bet­ter pro­tec­tion of con­sumers inter­est. Under the law, con­sumer forums have been set up for the set­tle­ment of dis­putes. To fur­ther strength­en this law, the gov­ern­ment is plan­ning to intro­duce amend­ments to the Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion Act (CPA) 1986 in the ongo­ing Win­ter ses­sion of Parliament.