Competition Commission of India could issue “soft advisory” to e-commerce firms demanding self-regulation

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Dec 6, 2019

Fair trade regulatory body the Competition Commission of India is considering issuing a “soft advisory” to e-commerce businesses operating in India in a bid to increase transparency through self-regulation.

The CCI’s chairperson Ashok Kumar Gupta said in a speech on December 4 that the organisation could issue a “soft advisory to e-commerce platforms to self-regulate certain aspects of their practices to foster trust and a predictable relationship with the business users so that full competitive potential of e-commerce can be harnessed.”

"These are complex issues and gauging the net impact on competition may not be as simple and straightforward," said Gupta. The CCI chairperon’s speech, titled “E-commerce and Challenges for Antitrust Enforcement”, was shared by the CCI on its website. 

Consumer trust is one of the key challenges facing the Indian e-commerce market and the online cosmetics industry in particular has faced problems with customers receiving fake products. Beauty retail giant Nykaa recently had a large amount of stock seized after a raid found unlicensed cosmetics in the business’ e-commerce store’s warehouse and both Amazon and Flipkart have received complaints about fake cosmetic goods. E-commerce platforms have argued that they are not responsible for products retailed by independent sellers but this has been debated.

The CCI launched a study into the Indian e-commerce market back in May and intends to release its findings later this month. The government is also in the process of creating a draft e-commerce policy which is expected to address issues in the fast growing online retail market which do not currently have comprehensive regulations.