‘Don’t make us liable for sellers’ fraud’

NEW DELHI: E-commerce marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal are lobbying to ensure that they are not mandated to bear the responsibility for any fraudulent activity undertaken by sellers registered with their platforms.
These companies are of the view that a move to make them liable for fraud committed by sellers risks diluting their stated position as intermediaries and argue they merely act as facilitators of transactions between buyers and sellers. “As a platform, we have our distinct scope of work and so does the seller. It is important to protect the consumer with clearly stated policies and time bound refunds but the legal liability of a seller cannot be transferred to the platform and vice-versa. If we start taking legal responsibilities that come under the domain of sellers, we will no longer remain as an intermediary. We then become like ade-facto seller, which is not who we are,” said an executive with an e-commerce firm.

There have been several instances where consumers have been delivered damaged products or have received a piece of brick instead of a smartphone, after placing online orders. The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) has asked e-commerce companies to clarify position as intermediaries under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and share their customer grievance redressal mechanisms. In response, Amazon and Walmart-controlled Flipkart have underlined the fact that FDI rules for e-commerce allow marketplaces to operate only as intermediaries and an attempt to assign fall-back liability to them will expand their oversight, and will violate FDI norms. Flipkart declined to offer any comments. A query sent to Amazon India did not elicit any response.