Online Shopping: Govt May Look To Check ‘Deep Discounting’

New Delhi: Heavy discounts offered by shopping portals may soon become a thing of the past with the central government contemplating to regulate “deep discounting” offered by e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart,

According to a report in TOI, many online e-commerce portals are now offering massive discounts on certain products. The new draft e-commerce policy seeks to regulate the practices followed by companies to deliver deep discount.

The draft policy, which was shared with stakeholders on Monday, also propose a legislation to cover popular food delivery sites such as Zomato and Swiggy.

Other online service providers such as UrbanClap, Paytm and Policybazaar will also come under it purview.

Apart from proposing a guideline to curb deep discounting, the draft bill also addresses consumer protection, grievance redressal, FDI and local data storage.

It also aims to protect the interest of small and medium-scale enterprises.

The draft, which will undergo a revision before public consultation, has also suggested appointing a regulator for the sector. The Indian e-commerce market is estimated to be worth around $25 billion and projected to touch $200 billion in a decade.

While the e-commerce growth in India has been impressive over the past few years, there are many challenges that they face.

It would impact the consumers, who throng e-commerce platforms hunting for deep discounts on everything.