E-commerce cos want clarity on new govt directives

02 Apr '16

2 min read

E-commerce companies in India plan to make a representation to the government seeking clarity on the norms of doing business after being rattled by certain clauses in the new marketplace guidelines, according to a newspaper report.

They are particularly bothered by four government guidelines. The first is the one that states that “Ecommerce entities providing marketplaces will not directly or indirectly influence the sale price of goods or services and shall maintain level playing field”.
E-commerce companies want a clarification whether they can incentivise sellers for high volume sale and seller economics and what does "indirectly influencing" pricing mean.

Another guideline that is worrying e-commerce companies states that “Inventory-based ecommerce means an ecommerce activity where inventory of goods or services is owned by ecommerce entity & is sold to the consumer directly”. E-commerce companies want to know if an e-commerce entity has inventory on lease basis, will it fall under inventory based or marketplace category.

A third guideline that has rattled the e-commerce companies says “Ecommerce companies may provide support services to sellers in respect of warehousing, logistics, order fulfilment, call centre, payment collection and other services.” The companies want to know whether they can also advertise to consumers in order to garner eyeballs and visits to their sites and thereby, help sellers?
They also want to know whether they can use prices given by sellers as the main message in their communication strategy.

Another guideline that has kicked up a controversy says “An e-commerce entity will not permit more than 25% of the sales on its marketplace from one vendor or its group companies.”

E-commerce companies plan to seek clarification on how should sale from vendors be measured - on weekly, monthly or yearly basis. (SH)

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