NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India's revised e-commerce rules caused widespread disruption on Amazon's India website when they kicked in on Friday, forcing the company to take down its key grocery service and remove a wide range of products such as sunglasses and floor cleaners.The products began to disappear from Amazon India late on Thursday as it began complying with the regulations before a midnight deadline, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
In December, India modified foreign direct investment rules for its burgeoning e-commerce sector, which has drawn major bets from not only Amazon.com but also the likes of Walmart Inc , which last year bought a majority stake in homegrown e-commerce player Flipkart.
India's new e-commerce investment rules bar online retailers from selling products via vendors in which they have an equity interest, and also from making deals with sellers to sell exclusively on their platforms.
Numerous items sold by Amazon vendors such as Cloudtail, in which Amazon holds an indirect equity stake, were no longer available on its India site. Amazon Pantry, a grocery service primarily managed by company affiliates, was also discontinued, though grocery products could be purchased individually.
"Pantry is completely empty, how I am suppose to grocery shop," Twitter user Pamela wrote on the social network. "Whatever government rules are, (I) don't care, you guys fix it, I need to shop."
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