Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha informed that more than 5.12 lakh (5,12,919) complaints pertaining to e-commerce have been registered in the National Consumer Helpline between April 2019 to November 2021.
The Minister of State added that Maharashtra reported the highest number of complaints followed by Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
A total of 64,924 complaints were registered from Maharasthra, 63,265 from Uttar Pradesh and 50,522 from Delhi.
West Bengal (38,582), Rajasthan (31,883), Haryana (28,693), Bihar (24,177) and Madhya Pradesh (22,312) were the other states that ranked higher on the tally.
The Minister of State in the written reply informed, "Rule 5(3)(e) of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 states that every marketplace e-commerce entity is required to provide in a clear and accessible manner, displayed prominently to its users at an appropriate place on its platform, all information provided to it by sellers under sub-rule (5) of rule 6 including name and contact numbers, and designation of the grievance officer for consumer grievance redressal or for reporting any other matter."
He added that the Central Consumer Protection Authority, in an advisory to October 1 this year, had urged industry associations to provide wide publicity to the provisions of the rules and ensure compliance to the same. This was to ensure that an adequate redressal mechanism was accessible to consumers while purchasing goods or services from e-commerce platforms.
