The Delhi High Court on Wednesday has issued notices to the Centre, Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and other e-commerce companies on a plea seeking directions to ensure display the name of manufacturing country on products beings sold on e-commerce websites and the compliance of Legal Metrology Act, 2009.
A division bench headed by the Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan was hearing a petition filed by Advocate Amit Shukla seeking directions to the respondents for the compliance of Legal Metrology Act, 2009.
“the E-Commerce and E-Commerce Entity is defined in Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011. The E-Commerce Web Sites / Applications are in public domain and are accessed by public at large for the purposes of buying and selling of consumer goods and other goods online,” stated in the petition.
The petitioner has stated that in 2017 the Legal metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 was amended and it was made mandatory to publish the country of origin of the manufacturer on the e-commerce website, however no compliance of the rule has been made by the companies.
It further stated, “economy of the entire nation would suffer in the event the E-Commerce websites continue not to mention the Manufacturing country / Country of Origin of products in the E-commerce Websites.”
“Today, when a large number of Indian Citizens intend to comply the government’s appeal to promote and buy Indian goods in order to strengthen the Nation, it becomes essential that the e-commerce websites conspicuously display the country of origin for all products sold through e-commerce platform,” said the plea.
The petitioner has further submitted that if the e-commerce websites do not mention the manufacturing country’s name on the products sold online, it is bound to affect the Indian economy.
The matter has been listed for next hearing on July 22.
-India Legal Bureau