Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India announces Safety Pledge for e-commerce platforms

Safety Pledge to serve as public commitment by e-commerce platforms to prioritize consumer safety

New Delhi: Major e-commerce platforms like Ajio, JioMart, Netmed, BigBasket, Tata Cliq, Tata 1mg, Zomato and Ola would be adopting Safety Pledge on the occasion of National Consumer Day, 2024 to be celebrated on 24th December, 2024.

The Safety Pledge is a voluntary commitment by e-commerce platforms for detecting and preventing the sale of unsafe, spurious and non-conforming products, cooperating with statutory authorities responsible for product safety, raising consumer product safety awareness among sellers and empowering consumers on product safety.

In a landmark step towards securing consumers’ interests, the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India announced Safety Pledge for e-commerce platforms.To discuss the development of a Safety Pledge, the Department of Consumer Affairs held a stakeholder consultation on 16.11.2023. Subsequently, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of noted consumer activist and journalist Ms. Pushpa Girimaji on 21.11.2023 for drafting of the pledge with major e-commerce entities, industry bodies and law chairs as its members. The committee was tasked to prepare and submit the Safety Pledge to the Department. The final draft of the pledge has been prepared after extensive consultative process by the Committee and scrutinization by the Department.

Many jurisdictions across the globe have nudged e-commerce platforms to take a voluntary safety pledge, as an informal commitment to proactively address the Issue of determining liability on e-commerce platforms, especially when the actual seller is untraceable or unwilling to accept responsibility.  

The unique nature of e-commerce, where physical examination of products before purchase is not possible, underscores the crucial role of product safety, which is established on the expectation that products adhere to safety standards and specified regulations. Consequently, product safety holds paramount importance for online shoppers.

The sale of products that are unsafe or fail to meet the relevant standards on e-commerce platforms poses a significant risk to the safety and well-being of consumers and the public. This becomes particularly crucial in case of products which are mandated to conform to standards under Quality Control Orders (QCOs).

With over 880 million users, India is the world's second-largest internet market. By 2030, India is projected to host the second-largest online shopper base globally, with an estimated 500 million shoppers [Source: Invest India Ecommerce Brochure.pdf]. In light of the consistent expansion of e-commerce in India, ensuring the safety of products sold online is imperative for consumer well-being.

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 acknowledges the significance of safety and product standards at the time of purchasing a product. 'Consumer rights' as outlined under Section 2(9) of the Act, includes the right to be protected against the marketing of goods, products or services which are hazardous to life and property and the right to be informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods, products or services, as the case may be, so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practice.

Falsely representing that the goods are of a particular standard, quality, quantity, grade, composition, style or model constitutes ‘unfair trade practice’ as defined under Section 2(47) of the Act. Further, goods that do not comply with the standard which is required to be maintained by or under any law for the time being in force are liable to held ‘defective’ under Section 2(10) of the Act.

Pertinently, the duties of e-commerce entities stipulated under Rule 4(3) of the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 includes the duty to not adopt any unfair trade practice, whether in the course of business on its platform or otherwise, stated a press release.