Amazon, Flipkart and other etailers have asked for more time to adopt MRP norms

Amazon India, Flipkart and Snapdeal have asked the government for more time to adhere to the new rules that mandate them to display maximum retail price and expiry details of packaged products sold on their platforms.

These platforms are still to fully comply with the January 1 deadline, and have informed government officials that they will need more time given huge inventories of their sellers. The ministry of consumer affairs, in a notification dated June 23 last year, amended the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, in which it stated that an ecommerce entity shall ensure that the mandatory declarations as specified and it shall be displayed on the digital and electronic network used for ecommerce transactions.

An industry member said some companies are asking for a moratorium of at least six months to be fully compliant, especially because of challenges such as creating seller awareness and changing catalogues for millions of products. The display of product details such as MRP on the platforms is expected to cut down on fake discounting often alleged against many ecommerce companies.

BN Dixit, head of legal metrology at the consumer affairs department, mentioned earlier that this is likely to impact the tendency of companies to exaggerate MRP and then offer discounts or sell items close to their expiry date. The consumer affairs department had received several complaints of e-commerce companies using such techniques, he said. Sellers said the rules will help weed our fake products and non-complying sellers.