As per the latest IT rules introduced in India, sales in the name of festivals and other reasons attracting customers with heavy discounts may be banned soon.
The new rules are expected to have an impact on flash sales which offer heavy discounts especially on smartphones and other electronic products majorly.
Anyhow, the Government of India has given time to the companies that are engaged in the e-commerce market to respond by July 6, 2021.
The Indian government’s Department of Consumer Affairs has clarified that the proposed amendments to Consumer Protection will stop –
widespread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystem.
However, the name of the company has not been mentioned by the ministry. But some of the protectionists view that Flipkart and Amazon hold an indirect stake in some of the companies. One report suggests that Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers while the Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers, bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales.
Such deeds are seen by some in the industry as an alternative to the government rules that limit the foreign investment law.
Also, Read: BigBasket Data Breach, Sale On Dark Web
Stricter norms will restrict e-commerce platforms like Walmart-owned Flipkart, Amazon mostly in conducting flash sales. This may therefore impact the e-retail market worth $200 by the year 2026. The e-retailers like Tata’s Big Basket, Reliance Industries’s JioMart, Softbank-backed Snapdeal will get affected along with the market leaders Amazon and Flipkart.
On the other hand, the new rules are seen as a confrontation between India and the US trade policies. However, no company has commented on the government’s move until now. Snapdeal or Jio Mart or Tata’s BigBasket has avoided commenting on the present It law.