The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed Amazon to notify consumers who had purchased 2,265 pressure cookers from the e-commerce platform and ordered the company to deposit Rs 1 lakh with the court's Registrar General in a week's time.
The bench comprising Justice Yashwant Varma was hearing a petition filed by Amazon Seller Services against the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA).
The CCPA had early in August imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on Amazon for selling pressure cookers that did not meet quality norms. The CCPA had also directed Amazon to notify all consumers of the 2,265 pressure cookers sold on its platform, recall the pressure cookers and reimburse the prices to the consumers and submit a compliance report of the same within 45 days.
The Delhi HC on Tuesday acknowledged that the CCPA probe established that the pressure cookers were not BIS-compliant, and noted that the petitioner was not "afforded any opportunity to rebut or meet those findings" and placed in abeyance any steps to recall or issue reimbursement with respect to the pressure cookers, saying it needed to study the matter further.
"The nature of obligations which an e-commerce platform must discharge under the 2020 Rules and whether they were in fact met in the facts of the present case would merit a more detailed examination. Additionally the Court would have to consider the duties and obligations which an e-commerce entity must be held liable to perform in law before onboarding a seller. These and other issues would warrant further consideration," the court said in the order dated September 20, 2022.
CCPA had submitted that the petitioner (Amazon) "does not place on the record any material which may establish that the sellers in question were offering products" that were non-compliant with BIS standards, and "cannot claim a right to onboard sellers without enquiring that their products comply with the legal requirements as applicable".
The court posted the matter for its next hearing on November 14, 2022.
First Published: Sept 20, 2022 8:00 PM IST
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