Top ecommerce companies in India such as Amazon India, which recently announced its Great Indian Festival sale, Flipkart and Snapdeal, whose owners recently declared to share 193 crore with their employees, have requested the government for more time to adhere to the new rules that command them to display maximum retail price and expiry details of packaged products sold on their platforms.

Companies Seeking a Six month Time

Companies are asking for a moratorium of at least six months to be fully compliant, as they face challenges such as creating seller awareness and changing catalogues for millions of products, said an industry member.

However, the government is likely to give a leeway for only one month. “The consumer affairs ministry has told officials to maintain an ‘investigative survey’ during January and start prosecuting default defaulters only from February 1,” the official mentioned above said.

Paytm Mall Fully Compliant with the Rules

Paytm Mall said it has become fully compliant with the rules. “We are now fully compliant with these rules within the given timelines. However, we had earlier requested for an extension for compliance to implement this successfully across all items available at our platform and to educate our merchant partners,” Amit Sinha, COO at Paytm Mall, said.

To cut down on Fake Discounting

Displaying of product details such as MRP is expected to cut down on fake discounting often alleged against many ecommerce companies.

“This is likely to impact the tendency of companies to exaggerate MRP and then offer discounts or sell items close to their expiry date”, said BN Dixit, of consumer affairs department.