E-commerce Policy

Customers can make the exchange irrespective of where the AC was purchased, says company

The government is working to bring a national retail trade policy for brick and mortar retail traders with an aim to promote ease of doing business, a senior official said on Monday. Joint Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Sanjiv said that the policy would also help in providing better infrastructure and more credit to traders. The Department, he said, is also working to bring an e-commerce policy for online retailers. "We want that there should be synergy between e-commerce as well as retail traders," Sanjiv said at a conference on FMCG and e-commerce here. The Department is also in the process of formulating an insurance scheme for all the retail traders. The accident insurance scheme would particularly help small traders of the country, he added. "The government is trying to do policy changes not only in e-commerce but national retail trade policy which will be for physical traders which will be introducing ease of doing business,

India has submitted two papers in the World Trade Organization related to consumer protection and digital infrastructure part of the e-commerce sector to initiate discussion on the subject before deliberating a final agreement, government officials said on Friday. The country wants member countries of Geneva-based WTO to discuss all these issues 'threadbare' before initiating negotiations on binding commitments or rules on the e-commerce sector. Joint Secretary in the commerce ministry Darpan Jain said the e-commerce sector is rapidly growing across the globe and as it has implications on developing and poor nations, it should be discussed in a multilateral setting in WTO and not among a group of countries. At present, a group of 87 countries, mostly developed, are negotiating to frame a pact on e-commerce rules. These two papers, he said "will form a basis for discussion. We have not proposed any rules or any binding obligations". "We are saying that plurilateral discussions have

Referring to observations of Parliamentary Committee on Finance, traders have demanded the government to immediate roll out a robust and strong e-commerce policy, formation of a regulatory authority

The government will look to stabilise its e-commerce firm ONDC and address the data privacy concerns before bringing a proposed e-commerce policy, according to an official source. In June 2021, the Department of Consumer Affairs under the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry released a draft set of rules that aims to tighten the governance of e-commerce platforms. On the other side, the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Commerce and Industry Ministry is also framing a national e-commerce policy. A couple of ministries are involved in the policy making as it lies in the jurisdiction of other legislations. "We have already launched the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to help small retailers. It has gone quite well. We have raised funds for ONDC. Once this gets stabilised and democratised, it will be easy to formalise the proposed e-commerce policy," the source said. There is also an element of data privacy in e-commerce, which Ministry of

ONDC, which is being developed to tackle the duopoly of Amazon and Flipkart in the Indian e-commerce market, will use open specifications and network protocols independent of any one platform

According to CAIT, Goyal advised the officials to explore the possibilities of formation of a regulator for e-commerce trade so that laws and rules are followed in both letter and spirit

Move comes five days after apex court reserved its order on Future Group's plea to go ahead with NCLT proceedings for proposed deal between Future Group and Reliance Industries

Under the proposed policy, the Centre will also have to focus on promoting the government-backed e-commerce network Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC)

"None of the e-commerce companies refuted the charges made by the CAIT and other associations," CAIT said in an official statement

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on Tuesday held a meeting with different stakeholders, including domestic and foreign companies, on the proposed e-commerce policy, an official said. The meeting was attended by domestic and foreign e-commerce firms besides domestic traders body CAIT (Confederation of All India Traders) and associations related to the MSME sector, the official added. CAIT in a statement said the meeting was attended by All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), Retailers Association of India, Laghu Udyog Bharti, and Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME). Representatives of e-commerce firms, including Amazon and Flipkart, also attended the virtual meeting, which was chaired by DPIIT Additional Secretary Anil Agarwal, along with other senior officials of the ministry. Confirming his participation in the meeting, CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the e-commerce policy should

Alleges that FDI policy has been continuously violated by foreign-funded e-commerce firms right under govt's nose, no action taken against such companies so far

To apply to all platforms engaged in buying and selling, including social media

The Union government on Tuesday said it has issued 202 notices to e-commerce players for incorrect declaration of 'country of origin' on products on their platforms in the last one year.

Union minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday assured that every stakeholder's interest will be taken into consideration while framing e-commerce policy which would be robust and in interest of every Indian

Industry fear change in business model, if these draft rules are implemented

The discussions and meetings will begin soon to allocate work to various agencies that will be involved in developing the platform, said an official in the know

Idea is to give 'free and fair' choice to buy products on online platform

The coming weeks should give us an idea on how e-commerce firms would do business in India if new rules are to be followed, writes Nivedita Mookerji

The tussle with governments is a familiar territory for Amazon since it, along with Apple, Google and Facebook, face potentially similar charges in the US