Small ecomm yet to put ‘Best Before Date’ for consumables

BENGALURU: Small ecommerce marketplaces and single-brand online stores have yet to comply with rules requiring them to display the maximum retail price (MRP) and ‘best before date’ for consumables sold on their platforms, according to an ET analysis.

The non-compliance comes despite a Ministry of Consumer Affairs directive, put in force through its Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) (Amendment Rules), 2017, which accorded top priority to protecting consumer rights. The rules came into effect from January 1, 2018, with the government department even raiding some warehouses of certain marketplaces for not complying with the rules.

The Legal Metrology division under the Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the implementation of the rules, is thinking of further action against non-compliant websites, sources close to the government told ET. While large ecommerce marketplaces such as the Walmart-backed Flipkart and US-based online retailer Amazon have begun displaying MRP and ‘best before dates’ on products listed on their platforms, smaller ones including online pharmacies, single brand retail stores and a few smaller horizontal marketplaces have not yet complied.

Some popular ecommerce websites, although compliant with the rules, made it hard for consumers to find the MRP and ‘best before date’ by putting them in dropdown or separate menus, the ET analysis showed. Other websites, especially single brand ecommerce players, were found to be wholly non-compliant.

Separately, according to a survey by community platform LocalCircles, only 56% of respondents said ecommerce sites and apps displayed the correct MRPs, while only 54% said ‘best before dates’ were displayed.

LocalCircles received over 15,000 inputs from 9,000 individuals for the survey.

“While the large sites are compliant on MRP, many vertical ecommerce sites are non-compliant or have hidden the MRP information such that it’s very hard to find,” said Sachin Taparia, founder and chairman of LocalCircles.

“On the ‘best before date’, even the large sites have only select sellers who are compliant and many products can still be found without this information.”