India is proposing a series of consumer safeguards that forbid e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.-owned Flipkart Online Services Pvt. from influencing pricing, adopting unfair promotion methods or misrepresenting the quality of goods and services. E-commerce companies must self-declare compliance and also provide a way for customers to contact them directly, said the proposed e-Commerce Guidelines for consumer protection 2019, published on the Department of Consumer Affairs website. The department invited parties to provide feedback by 16 September.

Publication : Livemint, The Hindu Business Line 

Date : August 6, 2019

The combined market capitalization of just four companies—Facebook, Apple, Alphabet (Google) and Amazon—is greater than the gross domestic product (GDP) of India. In the US, in China and, of late, in India, corporations which have a disproportionately large share of their consumer markets are rising. The current regulatory architecture is woefully inadequate to comprehend and determine whether this corporate concentration gives rise to monopoly power. The dictionary definition of monopoly is “a market situation where one firm, or a group of firms acting in concert, controls the supply of a good or a service”.

Publication : Livemint

Date : August 6, 2019

To protect consumers’ interest, the Centre has proposed guidelines for e-commerce firms that entail a 14-day deadline to effect refund request, mandate e-tailers to display details of sellers supplying goods and services on their websites and moot the procedure to resolve consumer complaints. The consumer affairs ministry has sought views of stakeholders on the draft guidelines on e-commerce by September 16. Meanwhile, the government is planning to come out with a national e-commerce policy to facilitate achieving holistic growth of the sector.

Publication: Economic Times

Date: August 6, 2019

Amazon.com Inc.’s determination to offer shoppers the best deals is prompting merchants selling products on its marketplace to raise their prices on competing websites, a testament to the company’s growing influence over the e-commerce market. Amazon constantly scans rivals’ prices to see if they’re lower. When it discovers a product is cheaper on, say, Walmart.com, Amazon alerts the company selling the item and then makes the product harder to find and buy on its own marketplace — effectively penalizing the merchant. In many cases, the merchant opts to raise the price on the rival site rather than risk losing sales on Amazon.

Publication: Bloomberg Quint

Date: August 6, 2019

IKEA is considering small stores or ‘experience centres’ within city limits to boost its direct customer outreach and wade into India’s online sales segment currently dominated by Flipkart and Amazon. The Swedish furniture giant plans 25 such sites by 2025, reports the Economic Times.Known worldwide for its huge off-city warehouses, usually ranging more than 400,000 square feet, the company now plans to function sites as small as 15,000 sq ft as digital planning points and sites ranging 50,000-100,000 sq ft for stores within city limits, the report added.

Publication: Moneycontrol

Date: August 6, 2019