E-commerce Jurisprudence: Navigating Consumer Protection Laws in India: Part I
The footprints of Indian Economic history depict that trade or commerce has been one of the most prominent factors in the Indian Economy. Commerce has played a leading role in making India a universal centre of wealth throughout ancient civilizations. In the new millennium global economy has witnessed a new revolution with the entrance of the world from the physical to the cyber world. The present world is surrounded by the power of a new mantra namely ‘Information Technology. By adopting the new innovative technology whole world has become a ‘global village’ and the economy has been converted into a ‘global economy. With the appearance of Information technology (IT) most countries have switched over from paper-based commerce to e-commerce and from paper-based governance to e-governance. The momentous development in the economy has witnessed the geometric expansion of trade, commerce, and marketing in the commercial world in the lap of cyberspace. This article delves into the intricate relationship between justice, jurisprudence, and e-commerce, focusing on the Indian context.
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The Philosophy behind the Indian Economy has transformed into a new concept which is the digital economy. The digital economy is also sometimes called the Internet Economy, the new economy, or the web economy. In this new economy, digital networking and communication infrastructure provide a global platform over which people and organizations devise strategies, interact, communicate, collaborate and search for information. The digital economy has helped to create an economic revolution.
E-commerce is a new gateway to the technological success of the Indian Business Scenario in the era of the Information explosion. E-commerce has revolutionized business activities globally through the use of information and digital technology in the new millennium. Digital Technology provides an effective communication platform to communicate to consumers directly or through online marketing. It means conducting business through network technology. E-commerce means the application of electronics in commerce. With e-commerce shopping can be done at any time at our fingertips instead of our feet. The geographical barriers have become a blur. A shop Located in another country and a shop next to our home, both are just a click away.
Consumers create markets through the demand for goods, services, and ideas. Marketing is not a fixed system of concepts. During the last many decades, multidimensional developments have taken place in the field of marketing. Traditionally, a ‘market’ is a physical place where buyers and sellers gather to exchange their goods. In recent years, marketing operations have undergone tremendous transformation in India due to the emergence of the internet, computers, telephones, mobiles, fax machines, and other electronic gadgets. A new era of information technology has launched new marketing terminology like e-marketing, telemarketing, e-shopping, online marketing, e-commerce e-business, cyberspace marketing, etc. Now instead of a physical marketplace, the cyber market provides tremendous speed in exposing amazing products at an amazing pace.
E-consumers are consumers who are buying and consuming goods or services or both using digital mediums i.e. Internet or any other electronic platform. The digital platform helps e-consumers to place orders for goods using e-commerce business models like Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C). The foundation of e-commerce has been strengthened by service-oriented products like hotel booking, travel ticket booking, e-mail services, online advertisements, etc.
The Latin equivalent of Jurisprudence is ‘Juris Prudentia’ which means either “knowledge of the law” or “skill in law”.[1] The jurisprudential study is based broadly to bring out the interrelation between law and other disciplines.[2] Therefore, to carry out this goal of jurisprudence, this research work is centred on the interdisciplinary study of law and business, in which the function of law for consumer protection in e-commerce has been examined. The world has undergone two significant revolutions in the recent few centuries: the Industrial Revolution and the Electronic Revolution.
Phenomena that were observed in the latter half of the 20th century altered the course of human civilization. This is the electronic explosion that has occurred, which has led to an unlimited expansion of knowledge, or what is known as an “information explosion.” Before the Internet was created, most business-to-business transactions took place in secret. The fact is that the origin of e-Commerce dates back some 30 years and lies in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), a standard way of exchanging data between companies. Internet e-Commerce is, however, only one part of the overall sphere of e-Commerce.[3]
In the global world consumer is not King. A customer will have to satisfy himself before paying for any product. In the fast pace growing digital world, the risk and threats to consumers come at the same hand and the same pace. Due to a lack of privacy, trust, and security, this type of e-commerce setup has a chance of premature death. In the real world, a consumer goes into a shop and selects a commodity, and hands over the cash in return for the same. The risk involved is minimal due to the opportunity available to the consumer for the due diligence at the shop itself and even if things go wrong, the consumer can usually visit the shop again and avail of the remedy as per the mutual understanding of the seller and purchaser such as exchange, refund, compensation, etc. However, when goods and services are traded over the internet, things are not simple as it seems.
In the context of e-Commerce, the relationship is not just selling through the web but managing customer relationships in general. Particularly from the perspective of buyer and seller relationship, e-Commerce applications can be divided formally into six categories[4]:
1. Business-to-Business (Termed as ‘e-hub’, the Second Industrial Revolution. It includes Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), and Electronic Resource Management (ERP).
2. Business-to-Consumer (Includes: e-brooking, e-news, e-learning, e-service, etc)
3. Consumer-to-Business (Includes: commercial transactions between consumers and businessmen in online shopping and trading).
4. Consumer-to-Consumer (Popular as e-Bay E-Commerce).
5. Business-to-Government
6. Government-to-Consumer
Earlier there were prominent four categories of e-Commerce. For online payments in e-Commerce from Government Banks and taxation purposes, it becomes necessary to involve the Government sector also along with private companies in e-Commerce.
Digital marketplaces have been the buzz of the consumer industry for the past several years, yet many brands and retailers still struggle to understand if and how to partner successfully with them. As a result of marked shifts in consumer behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic, digitization has accelerated even further: 40 percent of consumers are buying more online than they had previously done.[6] Consumers now play a significant role in the expanding community of merchants in the e-market. Consumer information in online marketplaces suffers greatly from inaccurate or missing information on trade, products, and services, as well as regarding transactions.
The global emphasis on protecting and promoting consumer rights has grown as a result of the expanding interdependence of the world economy. The most scholarly interpretations of modern social movements include “consumerism” as a component. It can be characterized as a broad and dynamic social movement aiming to strengthen consumers’ political strength and economic freedom. Consumer activism shares a similar theme called consumerism. The branch of legislation about the marketplace that seeks to balance the conflicting interests of the predominant group of sellers and consumers is known as consumer jurisprudence. The spirit of consumerism is very essential for the protection of the rights of consumers.
RESEARCH LIMITATION AND SCOPE:
The present study focuses on the endeavour to analyse the jurisprudence governing consumer protection in India and to achieve the said aim the footprints of trade and consumer protection from ancient India to the 21st Century will be traced and analysed. The research will also refer to the legislative enactments such as the Information Technology Act, 2000 (The Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008) from a consumer perspective as well as an analysis of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (The Consumer Protection (Amendment) Act, 2002) in context of protection of consumers in online marketing.
As it is not feasible to analyse all the governing provisions on e-Commerce and consumer protection, therefore, this research is majorly focussed on these two legislations and reference has been made from other relevant Indian legislations like the Indian Contract Act, 1872 the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 and RBI Guidelines on consumer protection in India.
AUTHOR: ADVOCATE VIDHI JAIN
NOTE: The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
[1] R.W.M. Dias, Jurisprudence, Butterworths, London, 1976, p. 1.
[2] R.W.M. Dias, Jurisprudence, Butterworths, London, 1976, p. 20
[3] D. Whiteley, E-Commerce, Strategy, Technologies and Applications, McGraw-Hill Companies, New York, 2000, p. 4.
[4] U.G. Shanmuga Sundram, “E-Commerce in the New Millennium”, The Indian Journal of Commerce, Vol. 54, No. 4, October-December, 2001, pp. 193-194.
[6] Holly Briedis, Michele Choi, et. al., Moving Past Friend Or Foe: How To Win With Digital Marketplaces available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/moving-past-friend-or-foe-how-to-win-with-digital-marketplaces published on June 18, 2020
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