Stakeholders are split on who the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) guidelines for e-commerce should apply to. These guidelines, published in January this year, set out requirements for e-commerce platforms to ensure that they do not engage in preferential treatment towards specific sellers or service providers. Stakeholders, however, want the BIS to clarify the type of e-commerce platforms these guidelines apply to—marketplace platforms, inventory platforms, or both. Marketplace platforms act like a digital shopping mall, connecting buyers to sellers, while inventory platforms own the products they sell.
The guidelines defined an e-commerce entity as “a company or organization that operates an electronic commerce platform, such as an online marketplace or web store, where buyers can purchase products or services from third-party sellers.” Some stakeholders argued that the definition covers both types of sellers; however, the specific mention of “third-party sellers” at the end suggests that the applicability of the guidelines is limited to marketplace sellers. They sought clarification about the placement and intent of this reference.
This comes as a response to an Right to Information (RTI) MediaNama had filed seeking the stakeholder comments BIS had received about the draft guidelines. The RTI response lists out comments but does not specify the organisations or individuals that submitted them.
Key stakeholder comments on the guidelines:
1. How should the guidelines define e-commerce entities?
Some suggested that BIS should define e-commerce platforms (both inventory and marketplace) based on the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020. Others also suggested that BIS should consider harmonising its definition with the Consolidated FDI policy.
They argued that the guidelines should apply to all platforms, given their intent to safeguard the interests of consumers and other stakeholders in the e-commerce business. Others, however, suggested that BIS should exclude marketplace platforms from these requirements, as they are mere intermediaries, and some of the requirements proposed under the guidelines may be too cumbersome for them.
Stakeholders noted that BIS defines both inventory and marketplace e-commerce entities but makes no mention of obligations for inventory-based platforms. They urged BIS to include such obligations. With regard to marketplace platforms, stakeholders suggested narrowing the definition to state that this category only includes businesses that do not sell goods or services they control on their platform. Others also suggested that BIS should classify brand-owned websites and seller websites as e-commerce entities for greater regulatory compliance.
2. Unnecessary to mandate search and product comparison functionalities:
Stakeholders argued that it would be expensive for platforms to add attribute-based search filters for millions of products, both in terms of upfront…
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