New Delhi: The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed penalties of Rs 10 lakh each on Amazon and Flipkart, and Rs 5 lakh on JioMart for selling and advertising an unregistered agro-chemical product called ‘Cyclosinone Herbicide’ on their platforms.
In an order dated September 22, the regulator directed the three e-commerce companies to immediately discontinue the sale and advertisement of the product. It was found that the item was being marketed without disclosing the chemical name of its active ingredient or its composition.
The e-commerce platforms have been directed to conduct a self-audit to prevent listing of products that contravene existing law or pose a hazard to consumer safety, and asked to submit compliance reports within 15 days of the order.
An investigation was conducted after the CCPA received a complaint forwarded by the Union Ministry of Agriculture, originally filed by the Crop Care Federation of India.
The Agriculture Ministry informed the CCPA that no chemical by the name of ‘Cyclosinone’ is listed in the Schedule to the Insecticides Act, 1968.
The CCPA noted that the marketplaces had not carried out adequate independent verification of the product’s regulatory status before allowing the listings to go live.
In its order against Amazon, CCPA cited 38,410 orders involving 43,634 units, with an aggregate sale value of Rs 96,42,572, as evidence of the scale of consumer exposure and the misleading impression created among buyers.
The regulator rejected the platforms’ defence that compliance responsibility lay contractually with individual sellers, and held that a private arrangement between a marketplace and its sellers cannot override statutory obligations imposed by Parliament or delegated legislation meant to protect consumers.
