Context: Recently, the Central government has told (via an affidavit) the Delhi High Court that all e-commerce entities have to ensure the mandatory declaration of ‘country of origin’ of imported products sold on their site.

• The Consumer Protection Act 2019 also mandates to display the ‘country of origin’ by the e-commerce entities.

Issue

• The response came on a plea by an advocate who sought implementation of the Legal Metrology Act 2009.
• The rules framed under its mandate that the country of origin has to be displayed on products being sold on e-commerce websites.

Key Points

• It has been stated that the laws relating to the issue were enacted under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 and the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011.
• Enforcement of the provisions of the Act and Rules is the responsibility of the States and UTs governments. “Whenever violations are observed, the action is taken by the legal metrology officials of the States/ UTs governments in accordance with the law.
• The petitioner has contended that enforcement of the mandate is in sync with the recent ‘Vocal for Local’ and ‘Atma Nirbhar’ Bharat push by the government of India.
• Earlier, the Central government has also mandated for all sellers on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) to list the Country of Origin while registering new products.
• GeM is a platform for public procurement.

Concerns

• Most of the e-commerce sites function as a ‘marketplace-based’ e-commerce model in which they only act as an ‘intermediary’ i.e they merely provide their information technology platform to connect third-party sellers with their potential consumers.
• The other form of e-commerce model is ‘Inventory-based,’ where the entities offer services or goods for sale from their own inventory.
• The e-commerce entities say that they have ensured that a data field pertaining to ‘country of origin’ is available on their system, which may be filled in by a seller when creating a new product listing.
• However, they have not made it mandatory, because the law does not mandate a disclosure of the ‘country of origin/manufacture/assembly’, in the case of India-manufactured goods.
• In many cases, finished goods sourced from different countries are packed together or assembled in a third country, prior to their shipment into India.
• Therefore, it could not be presumed that the rules intended that the last country of export alone be declared as the ‘country of origin,’ unless the law is amended or clarified to expressly state so.

Significance

• The declaration of the country of origin of products will enable consumers to make an informed decision and action will be taken on firms for violating the rules according to the provisions of the Act.
• Enforcement of the mandate was important in the current scenario when citizens intend to comply with the central government’s appeal to promote and purchase Indian goods and not from some neighbouring countries.