Tata Cliq, JioMart, Ajio, Ola, Zomato and others to take 'Safety Pledge' on National Consumer Day

New Delhi [India], December 14 (ANI): 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 December 24, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said on Saturday.

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.

The Department of Consumer Affairs has announced Safety Pledge for e-commerce platforms to securing consumers' interests.To discuss the development of a Safety Pledge, the Department held a stakeholder consultation on November 16 last year.

Subsequently, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of noted consumer activist and journalist Ms. Pushpa Girimaji on November 21, 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, the ministry said. The ministry stated that guaranteeing the security of products sold online is essential for the welfare of customers, given the steady growth of e-commerce in India.

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).The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 acknowledges the significance of safety and product standards at the time of purchasing a product.

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.