The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (MoCAF&PD) on November 29, 2023, issued a notification regarding safety notice under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 alerting consumers against the purchase of acid on e-commerce platforms.
The following has been stated: -
•Consumer safety is among the preambular objectives of the Act. ‘Consumer rights’ as defined under Section 2(9) of the Act, including the right to be protected against the marketing of goods, products, or services that are hazardous to life and property and the right to be informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods, products or services, as the case may be, so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices.
•It has been observed that neither there is any requirement to produce a Photo ID issued by the Government, nor there is any manner in which the purpose of buying the acid is recorded by the e-commerce platforms before placing an order. Further, there is no actual mechanism by which age verification of the buyer takes place before placing the order. Enabling the purchase of acid in such a manner on the e-commerce platform is a clear violation of the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and the MHA Advisory.
•As a result of this, the sale of corrosive acid is enabled by a mere click of a button. Such an unverified manner of purchase can cause consumers and public at large to be left vulnerable, unprotected, and unsafe, given that the product is capable of causing severe dermal corrosion.
•As per Section 4 (3) of Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, no e-commerce entity shall adopt any unfair trade practice, whether in the course of business on its platform or otherwise.
The detailed notification is given in the document attached below.
[Release ID: 1980893]
