The government’s big push to its people to adopt digital transactions also has its set of concerns. In the latest revelation that should ideally lead to tightening of norms to ensure consumer safety, official data reveals that the number of cases against e-commerce platforms has increased by more than 300 per cent in the last three years.
According to the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) data, tabled by the government in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, while in 2014-15 the NHC received 418 complaints, the number of cases increased to 1386 in 2016.
Minister of State for Consumer Affairs CR Chaudhary said that the NCH received complaints against some popular entities, including Paytm, Snapdeal, Amazon, Flipkart, e-Bay, Myantra and Jabong.
"The received complaints were dealt with as per consumer grievance redressal procedure," Chaudhary said.
A consumer can file a complaint relating to e-commerce transactions in the appropriate consumer forum established under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, he said in his written reply.
A maximum of 449 complaints were against bookmyoffer.Com, followed by e-bay (135), snapdeal.Com (120), amazon.In (114), flipkart.Com (92), whaaky.Com (79), shopclues.Com (47), and paytm.Com (46).
Around 15 complaints were received against Homeshop 18, followed by jabong.Com (15), naaptol.Com (13), Shop CJ Network India (10), askmebazar.Com (6) and myntra.Com (2) during this period, the data showed.
The minister also noted that there is no proposal for setting up of National Consumer Safety Authority.
However, the Consumer Protection Bill, 2015, already introduced in the Parliament, seeks to provide setting up of a central consumer protection authority to look into, inter alia, unfair trade practices, he added.
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