- Saturday, May 04, 2024
The Central Consumer Protection Authority’s action came after the Confederation of All India Traders lodged a complaint alleging that the American company was misleading consumers.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S Central Consumer Protection Authority (CPCA), a regulatory body that looks to safeguard consumers’ rights by curbing unfair trade practices, has pulled up e-commerce giant Amazon for allegedly involving itself in deceptive trade practices by selling sweets as ‘Sri Ram Mandir Ayodhya Prasad’ (divine sweets from Ram temple).
The Ram Mandir will see a consecration ceremony on Monday (22) in the northern Indian temple town of Ayodhya in the presence of prime minister Narendra Modi and several thousand high-profile guests besides common people.
The CPCA’s action came after the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) lodged a complaint alleging that the American company was misleading consumers by selling the sweets from the temple which is yet to be inaugurated.
Amazon was sent a notice following the CAIT’s complaint and it consequently removed the sales options of the prasad and initiated action against the sellers.
Read: Why PM Modi sleeping on floor ahead of Ram Mandir inauguration
“We have received communication from the CCPA regarding misleading product claims by certain seller(s) and investigating them for violations. In the interim, we are taking appropriate action against such listings as per our policies,” an Amazon spokesperson said, Business Today reported.
Read: India’s state banks to observe half-day closure on Jan 22 for Ram Mandir opening
The CPCA, which is under the Indian ministry of consumer affairs, said the authorities observed that various sweets/food products were on sale on Amazon as “Ram Mandir Ayodhya Prasad”. Some of the food products listed were ladoo, peda, among others.
According to CPCA, such practices mislead consumers about the true characteristics of the products and influence their purchasing decisions based on false representations.
“Enabling the sale of food products online that make false representations misleads consumers regarding the genuine characteristics of the product. Such practice falsely influences consumers to make purchase decisions they might not have otherwise taken, had the accurate attributes of the product been mentioned,” the authority said in a statement, NDTV reported.
The e-commerce company has been granted a week’s time to respond to the notice issued by the CCPA, failing which necessary actions will be initiated against it under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
