The Central Consumer Protection Authority on Wednesday imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on e-commerce platform Flipkart for allowing the sale of substandard domestic pressure cookers on its platform.
The CCPA has directed Flipkart to notify customers about all 598 pressure cookers sold on its site, recall the pressure cookers, and refund customers' money. The company has also been instructed to provide a compliance report within 45 days.
“Flipkart admittedly earned a total fee of ₹1,84,263 through the sale of such pressure cookers on its e-commerce platform,” the CCPA said. It also observed that while Flipkart has benefited financially from selling such pressure cookers, it cannot abdicate itself from its role and responsibility for selling substandard products.
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The CCPA has initiated a nationwide campaign to prohibit the sale of spurious and counterfeit items that violate Quality Control Orders (QCOs) established by the Central Government.
This is not the first time the CCPA has penalised an e-commerce company for selling pressure cookers that do not meet regulatory specifications. On August 4, it issued an injunction against Amazon for authorising the sale of household pressure cookers in violation of necessary criteria.
Amazon was also ordered to pay a Rs 1 lakh penalty. A total of 2,265 pressure cookers sold by Amazon failed to meet necessary specifications.
