Confederation of All India Traders
“Vyapur Bhawan”
925/1, Naiwala, karol Bagh,New Delhi-110005.
Phone: +91-11-45099884, Telefax:+91-11-45032665
Email: teamcait@gmail.com Website: www.cait.in
Ref No.: 3256/1/50
Shri Narendra Modi
Hon’ble Prime minister
Government of India
New Delhi
Dear Shri Piyush Ji,
Sub : Implementation of E Commerce rules under Consumer Protection Act
We crave leave to invite your kind attention towards the draft of e-commerce rules made by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs for which the last date of receiving the objections/suggestions was 21st July,2021. In view of the repeated violations of the policy and the law, strong strictures passed by Karnataka High Court and to protect the Indian e-commerce and retail trade from hijacking of ensuing festival season beginning from Rakhi festival from 22nd August,2021 by some of the known law offender e-commerce companies, the traders of the Country are earnestly looking at the earliest implementation of the e-commerce rules so that an even level playing field is available to all stakeholders to run for fair competition.
Based on the previous experiences, we wish to submit that implementation of e-commerce rules must not be delayed or diverted for some other mechanism to step in as implementation of the rules at this stage is very crucial because more than one lakh small shops have been closed due to mal-practices being religiously conducted by these companies which has also resulted into more unemployment.
We recall that in December,2020, the Delhi HO Court held Amazon for violating the FDI rules whereas in a recent judgement of Division Bench of Karnataka High Court made strong remarks against Amazon & Flipkart in its order of 23rd July while saying that if they both are not involved in violation of any statutory provisions of the Act,2002, they should not feel shy in facing the enquiry rather they should welcome the CCI enquiry. The Court further observed that writ appeals filed by both of them are an attempt to halt the action taken by the CCI under the Actlhe High Court also observed that both Amazon and Flipkart are intentionally not participating in the inquiry and trying to crush the inquiry at a preliminary stage, appeal is still preferred. The High Court also noted that dynamics of the market can change even in a few months, hence any previous cases where Flipkart / Amazon may have been exonerated by CCI has no bearing. This is just an inquiry and HC reiterated at multiple places that appellants are trying to crush an inquiry and now Amazon and Flipkart have appealed before the Supreme Court against the order passed by the Division Bench of Karnataka High Court. The above observations and simultaneous conduct of both the Companies establishes the fact they certainly have something wrong in their business module which is against the prevailing law or the policy:
It is pertinent to mention that a wrong narrative is being made that the ecommerce rules are against some specific ecommerce companies which is a blatant lie. We do understand that these ecommerce rules are applicable on all those entities whether Indian or foreign origin who are conducting their business activities through any mode of e-commerce. The rules will certainly liberate the ecommerce business from the clutches of few companies and will make the ecommerce landscape absolutely neutral giving equal opportunity to small and big e-commerce companies for the large benefit of consumers and will be an important step towards Digital India mission of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The rules will also bring a harmonious environment for coexistence of physical and online retail.
We, therefore, on behalf of 8 crore traders of the Country urge upon you to implement the said e-commerce rules immediately and also to ensure that no diversion implementation of the rules is carved out at this stage.
Thank You. With kind regards
Truly yours
Praveen Khandelwal
Confederation of All India Traders
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