Not liable for faulty products: Amazon

NEWDELHI: Shouldane-commerce marketplace be held equally liable along with the manufacturer for sale of a defective product?

The National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC) is adjudicating this issue which will fix the liability of e-commerce players, a booming sector in India.

Inthiscase,thepopulare-commerce website, Amazon Seller ServicePrivateLimitedhaschallenged a decision of the Chandigarh State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission in the NCDRCholdingthatitcannotbe held liable for the sale of any defective product along with the manufacturer.Amazon’scontention is that it neither sells nor offers to sell any products and merely provides an online marketplace where independent third party sellers can list their productforsale.GopalKrishna,a resident of Chandigarh, raised this question first in the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum when his Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 mobile handset, which he hadboughtfromAmazon,turned out to be defective within two months from the date of buying.

Krishna handed over the phone to the Xiaomi’s customer care centre but when it was not repaired on time, he wrote to AmazonwhichaskedKrishanto get ‘dead on arrival report’ from thecustomercareexecutive.The executiverefusedtoprovidesuch a certificate. When Krishna didn’t get his handset, he first sent a legal notice to Xiaomi and Amazon and when he didn’t get any positive response, he filed a complaint before the district forum . The district forum ordered Xiaomi as well as Amazon to jointly refund ₹9,998 being thecostofthemobilephonealong with₹10,000ascompensationand ₹5,000 towards litigation expenses.