Indian court orders Meesho and other e-commerce platforms to provide information on product origin

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notices to three companies directing their three e-commerce platforms to prominently display the manufacturer's name, country of origin and MRP of products sold on their platforms .

The three e-commerce platforms are Meesho, Glowroad and Shop101 . Among them, Meesho is the largest social e-commerce platform in India. The platform mainly sells clothing, beauty, jewelry accessories, home kitchen, shoes and bags and other products. Its business covers more than 5,000 small and medium-sized cities in India. Meesho is also one of the few e-commerce platforms in India that openly invites investment from China.

According to relevant Indian laws, consumers have the right to know detailed information such as the manufacturer and origin of a product. However, e-commerce platforms have failed to comply with relevant legal provisions, which may violate India's Consumer Protection Act and Legal Metrology Act. If e-commerce platforms do not take corrective measures, they will be punished by law, and platform sellers will also be affected.

Previously, India's two major e-commerce giants, Amazon India and Flipkart, had received similar warnings. The government required them to mark the country of origin for the goods on the platform. Currently, the two platforms have made changes and most products on the platform are marked with the country of origin information.

The action of the Delhi High Court means that sellers on e-commerce platforms such as Meesho and Shop101 will also be affected. Compared with before, the information that needs to be added this time is more detailed. In the future, sellers may have to add manufacturers, countries of origin and other more detailed product-related information on the detail page, otherwise they will be punished.

Although in the short term, requiring e-commerce platforms to add detailed product information will cause certain troubles for sellers on the platform, this measure can help e-commerce platforms become more reasonable and compliant. The openness and transparency of product information will help promote healthy competition among merchants. In the long run, it will be beneficial to sellers, buyers and platforms.

Cross-border e-commerce

E-commerce platform

E-commerce market