Not liable for faulty products: Amazon
ECOMMERCE WEBSITE SAYS IT DOES NOT SELL PRODUCTS BUT ONLY PROVIDES AN ONLINE MARKETPLACE WHERE ITEMS CAN BE LISTED
Should an e-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.
In this case, the popular e-commerce website, Amazon Seller Service Private Limited has challenged a decision of the Chandigarh State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission in the NCDRC holding that it cannot be held liable for the sale of any defective product along with the manufacturer.
Amazon’s contention 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 product for sale.
Gopal Krishna, 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 had bought from Amazon , 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 Amazon which asked Krishan to get ‘dead on arrival report’ from the customer care executive. The executive refused to provide such 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 the cost of the mobile phone along with ₹10,000 as compensation and ₹5,000 towards litigation expenses.
The district forum also rejected the Amazon’s contention that it cannot be burdened with liability saying that it was the bounden duty of the facilitator to ensure that goods sold are manufactured as per quality standard.
It said that if the goods purchased through online are found not up to the mark, online portal cannot escape its liability.
Though Xiaomi bore that mobile cost along with compensation and the litigation expenses, Amazon, stung by the order, preferred an appeal in the State Commission which rejected Amazon’s contention. Amazon has now approached the NCDRC with the same plea that it is not liable for any defective product as it merely provides a marketplace.
Several Indian citizens are among 200 people arrested between January and June as part of a drive against employers hiring individuals without the right to work in the United Kingdom and landlords letting out properties to such individuals.
The issue of Indian citizens overstaying their visas or entering the country illegally over the years has been on top of the agenda of India-UK relations. London is keen to expedite the process of identifying and returning such people to India.
Official sources here said the 200 people were arrested as part of Operation Magnify .
Official figures of illegal migrants are not released, but a top UK government functionary revealed to Hindustan Times that Indians top the list – more than 100,000 – accounting for more than twice the number of the next country on the list: Nigeria.
At least 27 Indians, including five women, have been arrested for overstaying their tourist visas in Sri Lanka, immigration officials said on Sunday. The immigration department’s investigation unit had been on the lookout for visa overstayers in the Northern Province, they said.
Most of the 27 Indians were held in Jaffna, where ethnic Tamils form a majority of the population.