The Department of Consumer Affairs held a stakeholder consultation today on preparation of a ‘Safety Pledge’ for e-commerce platforms aimed to ensure sale of goods which are safe for use by consumers and requiring platforms to take appropriate measures to prevent sale of unsafe goods.
The product safety pledge is a voluntary commitment by online platforms with respect to the safety of goods sold to consumers. The pledge aims to better protect consumers from the risk of purchasing unsafe products available for sale on e-commerce platforms. The safety pledge aims to raise standards across all online marketplaces operating in India. Signing the pledge can also be a public way of demonstrating their commitment to enhancing consumer product safety.
The proposed principles of the Safety Pledge for e-commerce platforms include detecting and preventing the sale of unsafe products, co-operating with statutory authorities responsible for product safety, raising consumer product safety awareness amongst third party sellers and empowering consumers on product safety issues. The Department has constituted a committee for drafting of the Safety Pledge and the committee includes members from major e-commerce platforms, voluntary consumer associations, industry bodies and National Law Universities. The committee shall submit its report in two weeks.
