Small ecommerce sellers seek EU-like norms

NEW DELHI: A group of small sellers on Amazon and Flipkart has written to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) seeking stricter norms so that ecommerce companies can’t arbitrarily change the terms of business and suspend accounts.

They have also asked for rules to bring greater transparency on online platforms such as an exhaustive disclosure of advantages they may give

These regulations are similar to the European Union’s recently announced digital single market rules to halt unfair practices. The All India Online Vendors Association, which represents more than 3,500 online sellers, said the DPIIT must urgently implement these rules “to ease our business.”

“Platforms have a free hand to conduct their business. This is leaving a lot of issues unresolved and lot of businesses being affected due to unreasonable blacklisting, data glitches, and absence of appealing and frequent changes in policies. We need ease of business while conducting business on platforms,” the group said.

The department is said to be drafting a policy for the ecommerce sector. It said in December that online marketplaces and their group companies can’t own vendors and prohibits them from controlling the inventory sold on their platforms. Small and medium sellers have complained about marketplaces giving preferential treatment to certain large sellers previously as well, leading to unfair competition.