E-commerce policy and rules: Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), the representative body for traders in India, on Thursday, appealed to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal for an early rollout of the E-commerce policy and E-commerce Rules under the Consumer Protection Act and a new Press Note replacing the Press Note 2 of FDI in the Retail Policy. In a letter to Goyal on Thursday, CAIT called for an even playing field for traders competing with the “foreign e-commerce companies” against alleged challenges such as uneven competition created by predatory pricing, exclusivity and inventory management.
CAIT called the present scenario “Highway or My Way,” owing to the problems faced by traders. According to the letter by CAIT, “Through e-commerce, no substantial FDI is entering into India rather which comes under the guise of FDI, is used for cash-burning or to support huge losses incurred by global e-tailers.”
The traders’ body in the letter alleged that several foreign-funded e-commerce companies practice predatory pricing, deep discounting, loss funding, and owning inventory; and use a preferential seller system in their operations, causing unfair practices that add to the vulnerability of Indian e-commerce companies.
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The umbrella body also sought the prohibition of flash sales and predatory pricing along with urging to make e-commerce companies responsible for the products they sell on their platform. It also requested for setting up grievance redressal mechanisms by e-commerce companies against mis-selling of goods and services.
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BC Bhartia, National President and Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General of CAIT said, “We are not urging for any special favour for the traders but are certainly inclined to ensure that laws, rules & regulations and policies of the government must be followed by one and all both in letter and spirit.”
“If level playing is not granted, the traders of the country shall be compelled to lose their businesses because of the manipulative and unethical business practices of the e-commerce companies. We are sure that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi must not have this intention,” they added.