DPIIT holds stakeholder meet on proposed e-commerce policy

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on Tuesday held a meeting with different stakeholders, including domestic and foreign companies, on the proposed e-commerce policy, an official said.

The meeting was attended by representatives from Udaan, Flipkart, Amazon, Tata, Netmeds, Pepperfry, Snapdeal, Urban Ladder and Indiamart as well as domestic traders body CAIT (Confederation of All India Traders) and associations related to the MSME sector, the official added.

According to sources, various participants called for a clear and exclusive definition of the e-commerce marketplace and distinction from web stores that are just electronic versions of retail stores in order to avoid any conflict of interest leading to discriminatory and anti-competitive business practices.

They also urged that the government should support companies to expand export using e-commerce.

Issues like lack of level-playing field between online and offline retailers were also raised. E-commerce companies, on the other hand, highlighted that they were running various programmes that are enabling lakhs of small businesses to go digital.

Queries sent to players like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal did not elicit any response.

Some participants said marketplaces or their affiliated entities must not have economic participation, directly or indirectly, through equity or otherwise in any seller on the platform. They also urged that the marketplace entity must not provide any discriminatory treatment to seller, customer, logistic provider, or payment provider.

Also, marketplaces should not list their own private label products on their platform directly through its affiliated entity or indirectly through any preferred seller, they said.

In a statement, CAIT said the meeting was attended by All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), Retailers Association of India, Laghu Udyog Bharti, and Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME).

Representatives of e-commerce firms, including Amazon and Flipkart, also attended the virtual meeting, which was chaired by DPIIT Additional Secretary Anil Agarwal, along with other senior officials of the ministry.

Confirming his participation in the meeting, CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the e-commerce policy should have clear stipulations about transparent operations of e-commerce platforms, easy accessibility and adequate grievance redressal system, and non-discriminatory access of marketplace platforms to all stakeholders and value chain.

It should also have stipulations about the avoidance of conflict of interest among marketplace platforms, sellers and various service providers on the platform.

The meeting holds significance as the department is in the process of formulating the policy.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)